160. The representative of the WTO Secretariat referred to two activities foreseen for the upcoming months that fell under the Joint Initiative, namely a national seminar in Niger to be organized jointly with WIPO later in December, and a national seminar in Lesotho to be held in January 2005. The WTO had received a number of requests from Pacific island countries, including LDC Members and countries in the process of acceding to the WTO. With a view to responding to these requests, the WTO was organizing, together with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, a sub-regional workshop on the TRIPS Agreement that would take place in Fiji at the end of January 2005.
161. One of the major programmes of technical cooperation that the WTO had undertaken in 2004 in favour of developing and least-developed countries generally was the organization of seven regional workshops on certain topical issues in regard to intellectual property. Since the Council's meeting in September, three more such regional workshops had taken place: one, organized jointly with WIPO, in Moldova for the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe, the Central Asia and the Caucasus; another in Saint Lucia for the Caribbean, co-organized with the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL) and the Caribbean Regional Machinery; and the third in the Dominican Republic for the Latin American countries, also co-organized with INTAL. The last of these workshops would be held the following week in the United Arab Emirates for the Arab Countries.
162. He thanked the host countries and the co-organizers, as well as the Geneva-based delegates and the staff members of WIPO and WHO, who had kindly accepted to speak at these events.
