OPENING REMARKS BY THE 1ST VICE
PRESIDENT OF ZANZIBAR HON. SEIF SHARIF HAMAD, AT THE OFFICIAL
OPENING OF THE THIRTY SIXTH SESSION OF THE
ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL OF AIRPO AT
BEACH RESORT NOVEMBER 26 – 30, 2012
Chairperson of the
Administrative Council of ARIPO,
Hon. Minister for
Justice and Constitutional Affairs,
Hon. Ministers of the
Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar ,
Principal Secretaries,
Mr. Gift Sibanda,
Director General of ARIPO,
Members of
Administrative Council of ARIPO,
Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama,
Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO),
Mr. Paulin Edou
Director General of the African Intellectual Property Organization, OAPI,
Representative of
Cooperating Partners,
Invited guests,
Distinguished ladies
and gentlemen.
It
is indeed a great pleasure and an honor for me to be invited to officiate at
this official opening of the 36th Session of the Administrative
Council of African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO). On behalf
of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, on behalf of the peoples of Zanzibar and on my own behalf I wish to warmly welcome you
to Zanzibar –
the home of spices and cloves.
We
the people of Zanzibar ,
and our Government are very happy. We
are happy because you have selected Zanzibar
as a venue to your 36th Session of the Administrative Council of
ARIPO in preference to other equally important and historical venues. I personally appreciate the importance you
have attached in your choice of venue and we thank you very much for that. As much as I would express my sincere
gratitude to ARIPO for bringing this important event to Zanzibar ,
I do hope that you will enjoy your stay here in Zanzibar
and at the end of the day you will not regret for choosing Zanzibar to be the venue of this gathering.
I
am also pleased to note with satisfaction the preference that you are giving to
this meeting by your presence. No doubt
this is a reflection of the importance that you attached to the annual meeting
of the Administrative Council of ARIPO.
The
Council session provides an important forum for the Organization to share
experiences in the field of intellectual property as well as to map up
strategies for future development of the Organization as provided for under the
Lusaka Agreement, the Treaty that established the Organization more than thirty
(30) year ago.
I
am informed that the current Session will, among other things, discuss
important Intellectual Properties (IP) issues which are of critical concern to Africa . These
include but not limited to matters related to the protection of new varieties
of plants. This is indeed a very
important item in your deliberations as it relates to food security, an issue
of concern for many an African country.
I am pleased therefore to welcome the delegation from International
Union for Protection of New varieties of Plants (UPOV) which is based
in Geneva whose
expert advice will provide an important ingredient to your discussions.
Likewise,
another important issue which your organization must strive to achieve is to
map up strategies for speedy ratification or accession of the protocol on
Traditional Knowledge and Expressions of Folklore. This Swakopmund Protocol which was signed
in Namibia
in 2010 is important in two main aspects.
It protects the rights on Traditional
Knowledge which is basically an Industrial Property avenue, in which case
your Intellectual Property Organization is much concerned. Secondly it deals
with Folklore province, of which a copyright administration is involved. Unfortunately while members have been very
keen in the adoption of “Swakopmund Protocol” on the
protection of traditional knowledge and expressions of folklore, regrettably,
very few countries have either acceded or ratified the said Protocol. It is therefore my humble appeal to your Council
to deliberate, discuss and strategize on the subject matter. We should be mindful of the fact that the
African continent is endowed with a lot of resources on traditional knowledge
and folklore expressions and therefore, the Swakopmund Protocol
should be seen as a key tool in ensuring that our traditional knowledge and expressions of folklore are adequately
protected against misappropriation.
In
deliberating on the Traditional Cultural Expression (TCEs) or Folklore; the
session should bear in mind that in developing Copyright location; Zanzibar is
one where the Swahili content, culture, history, location, sights and sounds
can be delivered all at once with rich traditional and cultural expressions. ARIPO should set strategic guidelines,
develop robust and effective methods to tackle copyright theft and infringement
so as to foster the economic potential from Copyright Industry.
Copyright
theft and infringement continues to severely damage both investment in artists
and our national economies at large through a number of new films and music
releases in many parts of the world.
Copyright industry has a big impact to the economy. If these rights are
protected the creators and rightholders will benefit. We in Zanzibar
have decided to formalize copyright industry through Tanzania Revenue
Authority, and now, the process of
Branding Zanzibar Cloves and Zanzibar spices is underway. In this respect ARIPO has a major role to
keep Industrial Property’s and copyright’s plan abreast so as to balance the
situation. It should as well extend its
efforts to helping the Copyright Offices by setting modern and effective
copyright administration systems so as to ensure that the system is concomitant
to the development of science and technology through out the world at this
particular time.
As
the concept of conventional “Intellectual Property Rights Protection” have been
designed by western and developed countries, Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
and some developing countries need to be given ample time to prepare
appropriate administrative structures and legal systems to meet the
requirements set by different international IP treaties and conventions.
My
message to you is that you should at all times plan for capacity building of
the IP offices, law enforcement organs
and different IP practitioners. This
will no doubt strengthen your IPR protection systems. With that in mind ARIPO needs to develop long
and short term training programs which will enable maximum utilization of the ARIPO Academy
to the benefit of all member countries.
In this connection, I would like to highly commend the Secretariat for
vigorously implementing the mandate on training so as to assist member
countries in minimizing the gap that the continent has in the lack of trained
personnel in the field of intellectual property.
I
am also pleased to hear that this training is also being extended to IP
practitioners who have been traditionally performing functions none other than being
post office boxes for foreign practitioners.
Let
me therefore at this juncture; take this opportunity to congratulate all the
members of the Administrative Council and the Secretariat for competently
carrying forward the noble objectives for which the Organization was
established.
Our
Government with a friendly assistance of WIPO is in the process of preparing
our Intellectual Property Policy. We
will therefore have a close watch of your deliberations so that we could take
the qualities as a model and your shortcomings as a warning. Dear delegates, let me refresh you a little
on the administration of Industrial Properties and Copyrights activities in Tanzania . This is not a Union issue as per Art. 4(3) of
the constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania. As such, Zanzibar on one hand and Tanzania Mainland on
the other, are legally required to formulate their own policies and
administrative frame work on IP Rights and Copyright. No doubt that WIPO and ARIPO are fully aware
of this constitutional arrangement, but I would, however, request these two
organizations not only to continue considering this arrangement in their
development plans, programs and activities, but also to convey this constitutional
message to all Industrial Properties agents and attorneys such as patents and
trade mark attorneys. This will
economically boost Zanzibar when the stated
attorneys designate Tanzania
in their applications to seek Intellectual Properties Rights protection in the
United Republic of Tanzania.
The
African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) continues to
religiously follow its tradition of holding its annual Administrative Council
Session concurrently with Round Tables on Topical Issues in the field of
intellectual property. I am informed
that during this Administrative Council Session again, the Session will be held
concurrently with round table on topical issues such as national reports on the
status of the development of a national IP policies and strategies. This is a welcoming information of which will
guide you on a proper direction towords your intended goals.
I
am given to understand that your round table discussion will also deliberate
issues related to geographical indications.
In this connection and as the World Intellectual Property Organization
has a number of projects related to geographical indication I believe therefore,
that that will be an appropriate occasion to highlight some of these
projects. Field trips would be a further
advantage to your deliberations.
Let
me briefly take this opportunity now to welcome the Deputy Director General of
WIPO Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, and to express our utmost appreciation for the
support which WIPO has given to Zanzibar for the
implementation of WIPO projects which are designated to Zanzibar .
Zanzibar
has just concluded the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between
WIPO, International Trade Center (ITC) and the Government of Zanzibar on
November 7 this year. The MoU is aiming
at assisting Zanzibar
in the implementation of the “Zanzibar Cloves Branding Project”. This will assist Zanzibar in utilizing the Industrial
Properties independently thereby increasing export income for Zanzibaris.
In
connection with Geographical indications, I wish also to extend our special
welcome to the EU delegation headed by the Deputy Director General for
Agriculture and rural Development of the European Commission, Ms Loretta
Dormal-Marino. I wish to congratulate
her and the Director General of ARIPO, Mr. Sibanda for concluding an
administrative memorandum of understanding which is a working document aimed at
supporting the development of geographical indications at ARIPO and its member
states.
I
wish also to extend my appreciation to the Representative of the Korean
International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
KOICA is doing an excellent job in supporting ARIPO and its member
states in upgrading their information and technology system. There has been a wide gap between the
developed and the developing countries in terms of digital IT system. KOICA has started to bridge the gap. We in Zanzibar
and Tanzania
in general do appreciate your efforts and we thank you very much for this.
The
complex nature of intellectual property, in particular its international character requires interaction with other
States and organizations that have a lot in common with ARIPO. In this respect, I wish to pay special
tribute to the Secretariat of the Organization for vigorously pursuing
strategic partnership with other states and organizations in the field of
intellectual property. Let me therefore
take this opportunity to welcome all our strategic partners, here present,
including International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations
(IFFRO); The International Union for the
Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), France’s National
Inter-Professional Association for Seeds and Plants (GNIS), Africa Intellectual
Property Organization (OAPI) Korean International Co-operation Agency (KOICA),
Common Market for Eastern and southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African
Community (ECA).
I
also wish to welcome the Industrial Properties practitioners. I know that the participation of the
practitioners continues to increase.
These practitioners are a special link between the generators of
innovation and invention and therefore you have a very crucial role to the
development of the Industrial Properties system; hence your primary importance.
In
conclusion, I wish to appeal again to WIPO and ARIPO, that the future progress
on this important task depends on you and your organizations, and more
important your deliberations. We as a
government will give you every support towards achieving this goal.
I
wish you fruitful deliberations and comfortable stay in our beautiful Islands . Please take time short as it may be, to be acquainted
with some of our history, culture and development activities.
May
I now declare that the 36th session of the administrative Council of ARIPO
officially opened.
Ahsanteni
sana
I
thank you all.
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