59. The representative of Bangladesh informed the Council that his country was in the process of drafting new legislation on intellectual property rights and was receiving technical cooperation, especially from WIPO and Japan. He expressed concern with regard to the information provided by New Zealand and the European Communities (documents IP/C/W/77/Add.1 and Add.2) that appeared to exclude South Asian countries from their technical cooperation and he called upon those two delegations to extend their technical cooperation activities to countries in that region. Further, he drew the attention of the developed country Members to their obligations under Article 66.2 of the Agreement to "provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories for the purpose of promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least-developed country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base". He also informed the Council that his country was going to ratify the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Given the needs of his country in the field of intellectual property, he wondered what technical assistance the WTO could provide for least developed countries.
