38. The Chairman recalled that the Council had requested, at its meeting on 21 November 1995, that he prepare, with the help of the Secretariat, for the first meeting of the Council in 1996, a short informal discussion note outlining and structuring the issues which had been raised in its various discussions on the subject of technical cooperation and identifying possible options for carrying forward the Council's work in this area. Accordingly, he had circulated an informal discussion note, dated 7 February 1996 (subsequently distributed as document IP/C/W/21), in which he had suggested four types of issues that the Council might wish to consider further in carrying forward its work in this area:
-the systematic provision of information on technical cooperation activities;
-how the Council could contribute to ensuring that needs for technical cooperation were adequately met;
-the technical cooperation activities of intergovernmental organizations, in particular WIPO and the WTO itself, especially in the light of the recently concluded agreement between the two Organizations; and
-whether, in the framework of the TRIPS Council, there would be an interest in more in-depth discussion of particular themes in regard to technical cooperation.
As mentioned in the document, the list was not intended to be exhaustive; Members were free to raise any other aspects for discussion if they so wished.
