368. The representative of Tanzania recalled that, on 29 November 2005, the TRIPS Council had extended the original TRIPS Article 66.1 transition period for implementation of the TRIPS Agreement by LDCs from 1 January 2006 to 1 July 2013. That decision had called for LDCs to provide the TRIPS Council, preferably before 1 January 2008, as much information as possible on their individual priority needs for technical and financial assistance for implementing the TRIPS Agreement. Under TRIPS Article 67, developed country Members had an obligation to provide technical and financial assistance to developing countries for implementing the TRIPS Agreement. Tanzania had taken the initiative to respond to the TRIPS Council decision of 29 November 2005 by making use of a diagnostic toolkit and consultancy support from a pilot project undertaken by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and Saana Consulting in 2007, with financial support from the UK Department for International Development. With active participation from a wide range of stakeholders, the pilot project had completed a comprehensive needs assessment and stakeholder consultation exercise in Tanzania in October 2007, under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing (MITM) in collaboration with the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA).
369. The report on the needs assessment and consultation exercise had identified the problems, challenges and key issues related to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, as well as the long-term requirements for technical assistance and capacity building on the implementation of the objectives, principles, rights and obligations of the Agreement for Tanzania according to the guidelines provided by the toolkit, covering the national development context, intellectual property framework, IPR administrative regime, enforcement and regulation regime, and promoting innovation, creativity and technology transfer.
370. The section on the national development context looked at broad range of economic, industrial, human, social and institutional factors which were of importance not only for development but also for the design of technical assistance and capacity building for economic development. Like any other LDC, Tanzania lacked the technical and financial capacity required to develop the IP system based on the needs identified in the report. Secondly, the key issues and challenges concerning the intellectual property policy framework were related to the formulation of policy and legislation on intellectual property and the capacity to participate in the international standard setting meetings and negotiations, which required specialized technical and analytical skills. The other key challenges discussed were related to the lack of capacity to coordinate the policy development process and to ensure full participation of main stakeholders both within and outside the Government.
371. IPR administrative regime, enforcement and regulation regime also required specialized technical and analytical skills. The same applied to setting up and effectively operating institutions charged with the administration of the IPR policies and laws. Regarding the promotion of innovation, creativity and technology transfer, the key challenge was little or no availability of resources for innovation and creativity, which generated very low level of industrial property that could be protected by the formal system of patents and trademarks.
372. She said that, based on this assessment, Tanzania was submitting formally its needs for technical and financial assistance to the TRIPS Council with encouragement from the TRIPS Council Members. She thanked the LDC Members who had already submitted their needs assessment, namely Uganda, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Bangladesh, for their encouragement.
373. Tanzania would follow up the needs assessment work by translating it into a national capacity building programme through BRELA under MITM. Work would be undertaken in close collaboration with stakeholders and development partners to formulate suitable priority technical assistance projects and activity clusters within an overall national capacity building programme on trade, IP and TRIPS for Tanzania. The overall objective was to further integrate Tanzania into the global economy and world trading system by increasing the contribution of IP towards the achievement of sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction; and to upgrade the national system for IP generation, protection, administration and enforcement in Tanzania in line with the TRIPS Agreement and applicable regional and international IP agreements.
374. The main expected results of the programme could be summarized as follows: (i) improved legal context harmonized with objectives, principles, rights, obligations and flexibilities set out in the TRIPS Agreement, as well as other commitments to international and regional IP standards; (ii) modern, service-oriented, and accessible and automated administration services for IPRs available for enterprises, creators and inventors in Tanzania; (iii) strengthened institutional framework and improved national IP coordination mechanism; (iv) increased awareness and use of IP as a tool for economic development and integration in Tanzania; (v) structured expansion of IP education, training and research institutions and programmes within a common national network; (vi) enabling Tanzania's regular and effective participation in the meetings of the WTO Council for TRIPS and at WIPO; (vii) strengthen the coordination capacity in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing; and (viii) development of the multi-disciplinary IP policy research and analysis capacity in different institutions dealing with IP issues in Tanzania.
375. For the next step, she requested the development partners, including potentially multilateral organizations and WTO Members, to provide IPR technical assistance and capacity building including expertise for specific programme activities. The project implementing team would use financial support from development partners to procure consultancy services from international and national experts and academics in the fields of IP law, economics, administration, education and training, enforcement and management. In this regard, Tanzania welcomed multilateral organizations and WTO Members to provide support towards the implementation of the programme.
