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WIPO Pledges Assistance to Senegal

Geneva, October 26, 2000
Press Updates UPD/2000/111

Activities aimed at boosting the development and performance of small and medium enterprises in Senegal and the sub-Saharan region topped the agenda of talks between the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris, and Senegal's Minister of Mines, Crafts and Industry of Senegal, Mr. Landing Savané on October 25, 2000 at WIPO headquarters in Geneva. In meetings with WIPO officials on October 25 and 26, the Senegalese delegation also discussed various aspects of the Organization's work, including electronic commerce, traditional knowledge, training programs under the WIPO Academy and the WIPONET project which will facilitate access to intellectual property information.

Dr. Idris underlined the importance of assisting the development of small and medium enterprises. He welcomed efforts by the Senegalese government to assist this growing sector saying this "represented an important step in helping innovators and the business community within the region to bring their ideas to market and to reap the commercial benefits of their ingenuity". Minister Savané reaffirmed his government's commitment to strengthening intellectual property protection in Senegal and the sub-Saharan region as a whole. He also informed the Director General of the Senegalese government's willingness to organize an international conference on human rights and intellectual property in Gorée, Senegal, in November 2001.

WIPO's program of assistance to Senegal is designed to help inventors realize the commercial potential of their patent-protected works and to spur small and medium enterprise (SME) development in Senegal and the sub-Saharan region. The SME sector is the backbone of economic growth in many countries and represents a highly innovative, dynamic and flexible economic sector that stands to benefit significantly from greater use of the intellectual property system.

In its first phase, this pilot project includes measures to upgrade the operations and strengthen the expertise of the Food Technology Institute for it to become a center of excellence for agricultural research and the promotion of innovation and creativity in the sub-region. The Senegalese Agency for the Promotion of Innovation will also be established at this time.

The second phase of the project will involve measures to strengthen the operational capacity and scope of activities of the newly established Agency. This body will help the business community to use the intellectual property system as a core element in their business development strategies. On the one hand, the agency will advise inventors and businesses on how to protect and commercialize new innovations and products and on the other hand, it will help the business community to take full advantage of existing commercially useful patents, held by inventors in the region, to stimulate technological, economic and social development. The agency will also be responsible for promoting the protection and valuation of traditional knowledge and for human resource development.

Senegal became a member of WIPO 1970 and is party to six other international treaties administered by the Organization, including the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs.

For further information, please contact the Media Relations and Public Affairs Section at WIPO:

  • Tel: (+41 22) - 338 81 61 or 338 95 47
  • Fax: (+41 22) - 338 88 10
  • Email: publicinf@wipo.int.
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