Intellectual property key
27/11/2009

GABORONE - Intellectual property is key to economic development and other spheres of wealth creation.

As such it remains crucial to the commercialisation of technology, development of science and trade in goods and services, said Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ms Banny Molosiwa.

She was speaking at the official opening of the 33rd session of the Administration Council of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) in Gaborone yesterday.

According to Ms Molosiwa, in most developed countries, studies indicated that the bulk of wealth and economic development were hinged on intellectual property and knowledge.

She urged developing countries particularly those in Africa to reduce the widening knowledge gap and the digital divide between developed and developing countries by embracing the use and protection of intellectual property rights.

Ms Molosiwa said intellectual property was widely recognised as a powerful tool for promoting economic growth in that the size of knowledge economy manifesting itself in the form of intellectual capital determined the wealth of nations.

She stated that developing countries faced several challenges in the development and management of intellectual property assets and some of those challenges included infrastructural problems, weak scientific and technological base as well as laws that needed to be updated to conform to international obligations and cater for the needs of developing countries. She said development of common goals and strategies within ARIPO could address such discrepancies.

She implored observer states to consider membership to ARIPO so that the region could contribute meaningfully to the development of their economies. Ms Molosiwa said to address some of the challenges, Botswana amended its intellectual property laws to conform to regional and international obligations.

Furthermore, Botswana has signed most of the treaties relating to intellectual property.

Ms Molosiwa noted that Botswana, as a member of ARIPO, commended with satisfaction the coming of age of the organisation, adding that it had graduated from a contribution dependent institution to an income generating institution under its grant and registration activities in intellectual property. BOPA