./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/203
1 September 2000
(00-3423)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  English
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  INFORMATION FROM
DEVELOPED COUNTRY MEMBERS
NEW ZEALAND
At the meetings of the Council for TRIPS in February and May 1996, it was agreed that
developed country Members would annually update information on their technical and financial
cooperation activities relevant to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.  At its meeting of
26-29 June 2000, the Council agreed that in 2000 this would be done in time for the Council's meeting
scheduled for 21-22 September 2000.
The present document reproduces the information which has been received from the
Permanent Mission of New Zealand by mean s of a communication, dated 31 August 2000.
Communications from other developed country Members will be circulated as addenda to this
document.
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1. Pursuant to Article 67 of the TRIPS Agreement, the Council for TRIPS has requested
developed countries to provide details of their technical and financial cooperation programmes in the
area of intellectual property rights (IPRs) relevant to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.
This report updates our previous report which was circulated as IP/C/W/154 on 5 October 1999.
2. New Zealand's bilateral and regional official development assistance (ODA) activities are
concentrated on the island states of the Pacific and the developing countries of East and South EastAsia.  The New Zealand ODA programme is driven by the needs and priorities of our partner
countries, and decisions on the use of New Zeal and ODA are made only after consultations with
partner countries and communities.  Requests from aid partners for bilateral or regional assistance in
the area of intellectual property rights are considered in this context and are responded to where
New Zealand has the capacity and expertise to do so.
3. Instances of recent New Zealand ODA assistance in this area include:
• In 1999, the Government of Tonga requested New Zealand's assistance to train officers in
the Intellectual Property and Company Registration Unit of Tonga's Ministry of Labour
Commerce and Industries.  As a result, four senior/middle level officers undertook
training attachments with the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand.  New Zealand
also funded visits to Tonga by New Zealand officials to carry out further training for localofficials.IP/C/W/203
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• New Zealand has also donated a range of hardware including a database, computer
equipment and trademark reference texts to Tonga to assist in the establishment of theirOffice.
• For the past three years New Zealand has run a series of trade policy courses at the
Mekong Institute in Khon Kaen, Thailand for officials from Greater Mekong Subregion
countries.  These cover principles and practical aspects of multilateral and regional tradepolicy issues, including specific segments on intellectual property and the TRIPS
Agreement.
4. New Zealand also considers requests for assistance and participation in technical cooperation
programmes overseen by multilateral and regional organizations.  In 1999, New Zealand made a
financial contribution to and provided an expert to speak at a UPOV-WIPO-WTO Joint Regional
Workshop on the Protection of Plant Varieties under Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement held inBangkok with the cooperation of the Government of Thailand.
5. In April 1998, together with the WTO Secretariat and the Government of Australia,
New Zealand co-hosted and co-financed a regional seminar on the TRIPS Agreement, WIPO treaties,
enforcement issues and practical syndicate exercises for TRIPS implementation for least developed
and developing countries in the Asia Pacific region.
6. In addition, New Zealand also provided in November 1999, at the request of two acceding
developing countries (Republic of Turkmenistan and Republic of Uzbekistan), technical assistance in
the form of a trade policy expert to speak at two conferences and to conduct a workshop on, inter alia ,
TRIPS-related matters.
Technical Cooperation Resources
7. Awareness-building initiatives and other general intellectual property rights related
information prepared by New Zealand agencies has also been made readily available for users via the
Internet.  These include:
Plant Variety Rights http://www/pvr/govt.nz
Trademarks, Patents and Designs http://www/iponz.govt.nz
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