The work of the 51st Series of Meetings of the Annual Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) have started on September 23 in Geneva, Switzerland. Delegates from 186 WIPO Member States met to examine the WIPO Program and Budget and to discuss other questions priority for the Organization in the next biennial 2014-2015.

Republic of Moldova is represented in the works of the 51st Series of Meetings of the Annual Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO by the Director General of AGEPI Lilia Bolocan, Head of Delegation H.E. Ambassador Victor Moraru, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova to the United Nations Office in Geneva and Director of the AGEPI Promotion and Publishing Department Maria Rojnevschi.

At the opening of the session, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry urged WIPO Member States to strengthen the links between authors from developing countries and the global online market. “Now, the Internet is a global stage, where artists, performers and other authors can more easily reach an audience outside their national borders. There is an unprecedented opportunity in these developments for making the developing and least developed countries part of the global digital marketplace. The developing world has traditionally been content rich and distribution poor. It s home to some of the finest creators and performers in the world, but the opportunities for these creators and performers to get their works and performances into global markets have been limited”, said Francis Gurry.

At the same time, the Director General of WIPO talked about two projects that will help the process of connecting creators and performers worldwide. These projects aim to develop a new voluntary quality assurance standard for collective management organizations and to concomitantly enhance the IT system for management of data. “These projects offer exciting prospects for contributing to a vibrant and truly global marketplace for creative works and for assisting the developing world to translate its cultural and creative assets into commercial assets in that marketplace”, specified Francis Gurry.

WIPO Director General informed the delegates about the financial situation of WIPO, noting that it is in a “very sound position”. Francis Gurry also talked about the Organization’s activity in two areas designated as priority in the coming years. “It is, primarily, about the proposed Treaty on industrial design that would provide simplified and more accessible procedures for obtaining protection for industrial designs. And secondly, it is necessary to identify the way forward for the shared objective of providing effective protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and intellectual property in relation to genetic resources”, said WIPO Director.

Also, Francis Gurry declared further that the highlight of the year for WIPO and its member states was the successful conclusion last year of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled. This treaty is called to facilitate the establishment and cross-border transmission of texts in a format suitable for visually impaired people.

Full statement of the Director General of WIPO Fr. Gaurry at the opening of the session may be accessed at: http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/dgo/speeches/a_51_dg_speech.html

On the first day of the session H.E. Ambassador Päivi Kairamo, Permanent Representative of Finland to the UN and other organizations in Geneva, was unanimously chosen Chair of the General Assembly of WIPO for the next two years.

According to the agenda of the session, representatives of Member States have heard the report of the Director General of WIPO, Fr. Gurry, on WIPO activity in 2013. The report can be accessed at: http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/freepublications/en/general/1050/wipo_pub_1050_2013.pdf

In the first two days of the assembly were heard the statements of the national coordinators of the Regional Groups within WIPO, of the representatives of the Member States of WIPO, of the observers accredited in this series of meetings. Statements have mainly targeted the organization’s activity in 2013, and the priorities on which will be focused all human and financial resources of WIPO in the next biennial 2014-2015, taking into account the contribution of these priorities to the implementation of recommendations of the WIPO Development Agenda.

Moldovan delegation subscribed to the declaration of the Regional Group of Central Europe Countries and Baltic States, to which it is party, noting also the priorities of our country in strengthening the national system of protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in order to integrate it into the international intellectual space. The declaration of the Republic of Moldova was presented to the audience on the second day of the assembly by H.E. Ambassador Victor Moraru and can be accessed at: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/statements.jsp.

The work of the current series of meetings of the annual assemblies of WIPO General can be viewed online:http://www.wipo.int/webcasting/