178. Thank you Chair for giving me the floor to intervene on behalf of the African Group. At the outset, we would like to commend the Secretariat for organizing the Workshop on the Implementation of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement which brought participants from LDCs and developed country Members to exchange views and share experience on the subject matter. Similarly, the African Group would like to commend developed country Members which have submitted their reports to the TRIPS Council demonstrating the efforts undertaken to implement Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement as obligated, for which also we would like to urge Members which have not submitted their reports yet, to do so. Also, we have noted with appreciations the efforts of all Members implementing numerous projects in LDCs and particularly in the African region geared to promote technology transfer.
179. While those efforts are commendable, still there is a room for further improvement on both the annual reports and the actual incentive programmes which will encourage their private sector to transfer technology. It should be recalled that Article 66.2 is calling for public policies or programmes that developed country Members undertake to encourage their respective enterprises or institutions to engage in real technology transfer. On the annual reports, Members should focus on programmes geared to LDCs as beneficiaries and need to specify the targeted technologies transfer. However, regarding the 2021 reports like previous years reports, one finds difficult to pinpoint the actual targets of projects or transferred technologies.
180. The past two years of battling with COVID-19 challenges have exposed the vulnerability of LDCs due to their weak industrial capacities constraining their ability to produce basic products especially medical related products. Therefore, deliberate and genuine efforts are still desired to support LDCs in their endeavour to this course.