59. The representative of the European Communities said that the EC and their member States and the Asia-Europe Meeting ("ASEM") countries had recently held a seminar in Thailand for the purposes of reviewing recent developments in the EC and their member States and TRIPS implementation in the ASEM countries. A similar meeting had been organized between the EC and their member States and the ASEAN countries. He looked forward to continuing cooperation with both groups of countries. In his view, it was important that the International Bureau of WIPO and the WTO Secretariat would continue to cooperate in providing assistance to developing countries that were under an obligation to implement the TRIPS Agreement since 1 January 2000; he was interested in information on the cooperation during the first half of the year 2000. Attention should also be paid to the provision of adequate assistance to least-developed countries to meet their obligations by 1 January 2006.
