On the morning of June 16, the Sino-African Workshop for Heads of Intellectual Property Offices is jointly held by SIPO, African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Beijing. Tian Lipu, SIPO Commissioner, Gift Sibanda, Director-General of ARIPO and Wang Binying, Assistant Director General of WIPO attend the opening ceremony and deliver speeches.

Mr. Tian points out that China has established a relatively comprehensive and systematic IPR protection system since it introduced the reform and opening-up some 30 years ago, and obtained certain experience in probing into the establishment of the legal system and IPR policies and measures in line with its own specific national conditions. The recently issued Compendium of the National Intellectual Property Strategy marks a new development stage of China’s IPR.

Mr. Tian reiterates that as the largest developing country, China is faced with similar challenges and problems as the other developing countries in the world, and shares with the African countries the same concerns and aspirations. Enhancing the cooperation between China and Africa in the field of IPR is conducive to accelerating the leapfrogging development of their own economy by sharing experience in utilizing IP system, which shall not only bring benefits to the Chinese and African people, but also promote the prosperity and development of the world at large.

Mr. Tian indicates that along with the development of economic globalization, the internationalization of the IP system is increasingly obvious. WIPO plays a positive role in developing and innovating the international IPR protection system. As a specialized UN agency in charge of IPR, WIPO provides an effective platform for its member countries to exploit its own developing mode in accordance with its practical situations, makes unremitting efforts to ensure that the developing countries and the least developed countries benefit from the IPR system, and makes contributions to the realization of a harmonious world and common development of mankind. SIPO is willing to work, under WIPO’s coordination operations, with the rest developing countries to promote the world’s beautiful future of common prosperity and progress.

Mr. Sibanda says in his speech that China has made remarkable achievements in its economic development and the meeting also provides a good opportunity for African region to learn from China in terms of utilizing IPR in economic development. Mr. Wang notes that WIPO, SIPO and ARIPO maintain long-term effective cooperation. As the follow-up achievement of Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006, the meeting will supply a new way of strengthening trilateral cooperation.

This meeting is in response to China’s African Policy released by the Chinese Government in 2006, and is the result of the calling for a new type of strategic partnership with Africa featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation, and cultural exchanges. It has also gained support from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. In July 2007, SIPO and ARIPO signed the IP Cooperation Agreement, which laid a solid cooperation foundation. With the concerted efforts of SIPO and ARIPO, this workshop is deemed as a substantial step to fulfill the bilateral agreement and is also a historic breakthrough in the field of Sino-African IP cooperation. This is also SIPO’s initial exploration of using “Special Fund for Developing Countries” to develop the cooperation with African countries on human resources, which is efficiently promoted by WIPO.  This is a major achievement of the trilateral cooperation among SIPO, ARIPO and WIPO, and it marks a brand new era for the IP cooperation among the three parties.

More than 60 people, including representatives from the secretariats of WIPO and ARIPO, heads of the IP offices of 16 ARIPO member states and their representatives, people from SIPO, National Copyright Administration of China, State Administration for Industry and Commerce and other governmental departments attend the meeting.

2008-06-24

2008-06-24