The Year Ahead in Asia-Pacific
Published: February 1, 2018
On December 4-6, 2017, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, INTA attended the African Economic Conference 2017, which was themed “Governance for structural transformation.” The conference was officially opened by Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
Jointly organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the conference brought together more than 500 participants, including government officials, researchers, and many other development actors. International leaders and authorities in the field of governance research were also present. INTA was represented by Tat-Tienne Louembe, the Association’s Representative for Africa and the Middle East.
During the conference, Mr. Louembe discussed the Association’s growing activities in Africa and the development of synergies and partnerships with attendees from key institutions, such as the AfDB, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the UNECA, and Corporate Council on Africa (CCA). He emphasized that in this new era of innovation, mastering IP rights will be a game changer for Africa.
On the margins of the conference, Mr. Louembe visited the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO), where he had a closed meeting with Ermias Yemanebirhan, Director of EIPO. INTA was pleased to learn about EIPO’s crucial role in strengthening the Ethiopian IP rights system as a way to increase brand value and bolster the economy.
Mr. Louembe later visited Sarah Anyang Agbor, African Union Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology (HRST). During this high-level meeting, Mr. Louembe and Ms. Agbor discussed the state of IP in Africa, future joint raising-awareness activities, and INTA’s 2018‒2021 Strategic Plan. In addition, Mr. Louembe had a bilateral meeting with Babajide Sodipo, Chief Policy Advisor, Department of Trade and Industry at the African Union. Among other topics, Mr. Sodipo briefed INTA on the latest developments pertaining to the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA). According to African Union officials, the CFTA aims to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business people and investments, thus paving the way to accelerate the establishment of the Customs Union. It will also expand intra-African trade through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization and facilitation and instruments across Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and across Africa in general.
INTA’s first ever participation in this event demonstrates the Association’s strong interest on the continent and its willingness to reach a wider audience about the positive impacts of IP on economic growth.
Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of items in the INTA Bulletin, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.
© 2018 International Trademark Association
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
To find out more please see our Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.
These cookies are used to identify a user’s browser as the visitor goes from page to page on the Site. These are session cookies, which means that the cookie is deleted when you leave the Site. It is an integral piece of the Site software and used to let the server know which users are on the Site at any given time and make certain parts of the Site easier to use.
|
|
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our Site. The cookies collect information in anonymous form, including the numbers of visitors to the Site, where visitors have come to the Site from, the pages they visited and how they have interacted with tools on the Site like search and embedded media players. We use the information to compile statistical reports of our users’ browsing patterns so that we can improve the Site.
|
|
Please enable Functionality Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
These cookies are used to deliver advertising relevant to the interests of visitors to our Site. They are persistent, which means they will remain on your device after you leave the Site.
- Facebook (Ad Pixel)
- Google (Ad Pixel)
- LinkedIn (Ad Pixel)
- Quattro Anonymous
Please enable Functionality Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!