278. The representative of the Secretariat said that the Secretariat planned to submit a written report to the Council's September meeting on this topic. He recalled that the Joint Initiative had two phases. The first phase was the organization of regional workshops for least-developed countries. The first such workshop, which was for the least-developed sub-Saharan African countries, was held at the end of April 2002 in Dar Es Salaam in cooperation with the Government of Tanzania. More that 120 officials from 33 least-developed countries participated. It had been a successful and useful event. The second of the regional workshops, which would be for least-developed countries in the Asia and Pacific regions, would be held in Bangladesh during the second week of December 2002. The Secretariat had also been working out with WIPO how to respond to the bilateral requests for individual country activities under the Joint Initiative. They were planning to respond to as many as possible of these requests before the end of 2002.
