72. The Chairman recalled that, at its last meeting, the Council had taken up its annual review of technical cooperation. Given that some information from Members and other intergovernmental organizations had been made available only a short time before the review, he offered delegations a further opportunity to comment on the material.
73. He also recalled the provisions on enhanced technical cooperation in the TRIPS Council Decision of 29 November 2005 on the Extension of the Transition Period under Article 66.1 for Least-Developed Country Members (IP/C/40). Paragraph 2 of the Decision provided that "with a view to facilitating targeted technical and financial cooperation programmes, all the least-developed country Members will provide to the Council for TRIPS, preferably by the 1 January 2008, as much information as possible on their individual priority needs for technical and financial cooperation in order to assist them taking steps necessary to implement the TRIPS Agreement". Paragraphs 3 and 4 concerned the provision of technical assistance by developed country Members and by the WTO in cooperation with WIPO and other international organizations.
74. As the Secretariat had previously informed the Council, the national workshops for LDCs it had recently organized, some of them together with WIPO, had included components geared towards the type of needs assessment foreseen in paragraph 2 of the Decision. Alternatively, separate meetings with key officials had been organized for this purpose in conjunction with these workshops. He urged LDCs interested in such activities under the Technical Cooperation Plan for 2007 to inform the Secretariat as soon as possible. WIPO had agreed to support such activities this year and had further indicated that, whenever feasible, it would take into account the needs assessments foreseen in paragraph 2 of the Decision in its own technical cooperation activities in favour of LDCs.
