Least Developed Countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh should actively upgrade their legal and institutional frameworks in intellectual property (IP) in order to take advantage of the flexibilities expected to be offered by the WTO.
The international community also needs to support the efforts of LDCs, said Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Bangladesh's permanent representative to the United Nations office in Geneva.
"Once flexibilities are offered by the WTO, LDCs would have to comply with international IP standards," he said, adding, "Using IP for development is not an option, but a necessity.”
He was delivering his opening plenary speech at the daylong WIPO High-Level Forum held in Geneva on Wednesday.
He called upon the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to dedicate more financial and human resources in assisting LDCs constitute a central pillar of the body's activity, according to a press release received from Geneva.
WIPO Director General Kamil Idris inaugurated the Forum.
Ministers from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Lesotho, Senegal, Sudan, and Uganda attended the Forum.
As the Global Coordinator of the LDCs, Bangladesh highlighted the potential of intellectual property for accelerating economic development.
At the forum, Debapriya placed a suggestion for a “one country, one product” scheme be initiated where WIPO and the private sector would come together to identify and develop one distinct product from each of the LDCs and would bring it to the international market.