300. The representative of the WTO Secretariat said that the Joint Initiative envisaged assistance in two phases. During the first phase, the two Secretariats would organize two regional workshops. The second phase would focus on country specific action plans. The first of these workshops, for the least-developed Sub-Saharan countries and Haiti, would be held from 22 to 25 April 2002 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in cooperation with the Government of Tanzania. The objective of the workshop was to discuss with senior officials international intellectual property norms and standards as well as current issues, including the work in WIPO and the results of the Doha Ministerial Conference. Participants would be asked to contribute to discussions aimed at identifying critical implementation issues in their respective countries. This was intended to help in the drafting of country-specific actions plan. The second regional workshop would be held for least-developed countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The Secretariats were in contact with some countries who had offered to host the workshop.
301. Continuing, he said that the Secretariats were in the process of responding to 13 requests that had been received from LDCs under the Joint Initiative. He drew Members' attention to the latest version of the Coordinated WTO Secretariat Annual Technical Assistance Plan 2002 (document WT/COMTD/W/95/Rev.2, pages 66 and 67) which provided for six projects designed to respond to these requests. In addition to the activities to be carried out under the Joint Initiative for LDCs, he said that the WIPO and WTO Secretariats would hold a joint conference for Arab countries from 28 to 30 April 2002 in Doha, Qatar.
