RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/132/Add.5
26 April 2000
(00-1677)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  English
IMPLEMENTATION OF ARTICLE  66.2:  INFORMATION FROM
DEVELOPED COUNTRY MEMBERS
Addendum
SWITZERLAND
The present document reproduces information on the implementation of Article 66.2 of the
TRIPS Agreement by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland.
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The following information complements the stat ement made by the Swiss Delegation in the
meeting of the TRIPS Council held on 1-2 December 1998 (see doc. IP/C/M/21).
1. Developed country members have undertaken to provide information regarding their activities
relevant to Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement, namely, the promotion and encouragement of
technology transfer to least-developed country Members (LLDCs) in order to help them to create a
sound and viable technological base.
2. There are mainly two Swiss government agenci es involved in the provision of incentives,
either directly or indirectly, for Swiss as well as for other developed country Members' enterprises and
institutions to engage in activities involving te chnology transfer to LLDCs. These two agencies are
the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic
Affairs (SECO). Their activities relevant to Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement are present in theSwiss Official Development Assistance Programme (ODA-Programme).
3. Swiss ODA-Programmes incorporate bilateral, regional and multilateral initiatives. They are
mainly focused on a selected group of priority countries in Latin America, Africa as well as Central
and South-East Asia. Many of these programmes incorporate projects which contract Swiss as well asother developed country Members' enterprises and institutions to provide their knowledge and
technology in assisting the development of human capital, infrastructure and private sector enterprise
in LLDCs.
4. Switzerland supports various bilateral and multilateral projects in order to promote
investments as well as the efficiency and the effectiveness of trade.  In the field of investment
promotion the incentives of Swi ss ODA aim at m obilising private capital, know-how and technologies
to strengthen the financial intermediation system in  developing countries as well as know-how and
technology transfer to foster investments or joint ventures.  Concerning trade promotion, Switzerland
co-operates mostly with other bilateral or multilateral agencies.IP/C/W/132/Add.5
Page 2
5. Recently Switzerland concentrated a lot of efforts in the promotion of transfer of
environmentally sound technologies.  Therefore a comprehensive programme for the establishment of
so-called Cleaner Production Centres has been set up.  These centres aim at offering to private
companies as well as to the public sector in developing countries a wide range of services including
general information, implant assessments, workshops, demonstration projects, capacity building andsupport for the preparation of bankable projects.  The centres provide theses services with the support
of Swiss and other developed country Members' t echnical institutes, universities and industries.
6. Switzerland supports as well programmes in the field of energy efficiency, which aim at
mitigating C02 emission globally and controlling air pollution locally.  These projects are related to
the traffic and transport sector and to the small and medium size industry (foundry, glass and brick
industry).  The main objective is to strengthen local partners (capacity building) and to pool
international expertise in order to develop locally adequate 
solutions (technology package).  These
pilot programmes are then evaluated, documented  and disseminated at the national level.  In
addition we support transfer of know-how, training and infrastructure in the field of environment
monitoring and chemicals management.  A specif ic programme is dedicated to the transfer of
technology in the small scale mining sector in the Andean region.  Finally we provide assistance
to the private sector at large, through a NGO, in the field of eco-efficiency in North Africa andthe Middle East.
7. Another more traditional activity of the ODA-Programme concerns mixed financing .  Mixed
financing allows developing countries to have access to long-term investment credits for the purchase
of Swiss goods and services, contributing thereby to their sustainable development .  Mixed financing
consists of a grant from the Swiss government a nd a commercial credit from Swiss commercial banks .
The grant portion varies between 35 and 50 per cent depending on the country concerned .  Eligible
are infrastructure projects that are commercially non-viable (e.g. in transport, ruraltelecommunication, electrification of remote areas not connected to the national grid, water treatment,
public sewage and garbage)
.  The project needs to have a positive social and/or environmental impact.
8. As part of its new strategy for promoting inve stment in developing and emerging countries,
Switzerland provides a certain number of instruments for the private sector .  The aim is to support
countries which, over the past few years, have made an effort to combat inflation, to reduce theirbudget deficit, to privatise large areas of the economy and to make their countries more attractive to
outside investment, but where this investment is not yet forthcoming owing to persistent risk
.  It is
mainly by sharing this risk with the private sector, but also by improving awareness of businessopportunities in these countries, that Switzerland  is trying to encourage collaboration between
companies in this country (and in our neighbouring countries) and those in developing and emerging
nations
.  The guiding principle behind the policy of collaboration with the private sector is to share
the investment risk, rather than to offer subsidies .  These measures involve a certain degree of bias in
favour of small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), insofar as there is a ceiling on the amount of
finance granted, and also the fact that transaction costs are reimbursed for smaller projects .  Once the
project has been drawn up, the investor has to find a partner in a developing or emerging country who
fulfils the necessary technical and financial conditions .  With its vast network of partner
organisations, the Swiss Organisation for Facilitating Investments (SOFI) is in a position to help find
foreign partners and to negotiate a joint venture agreement (or other form of partnership) which is to
the advantage of both parties .  When the realisation stage has been reached the investor may need a
source of funding .  The Swiss Development Finance Corporati on (SDFC), or one of the partnership
funds or venture capital funds of which the Swiss Go vernment is a member, may provide part of the
necessary funding as well as financial services for securing the remaining funds .  Finally, the Swiss
Government is involved in launching a mechanism which will enable the provision of financial
support for vocational training programmes set up by the private sector, in order to encourage them to
extend the scope of such programmes beyond their immediate needs.IP/C/W/132/Add.5
Page 3
9. Switzerland is also active in the field of trade-related technical co-operation (TRTC) .  The
main objective of Switzerland's TRTC-activities is to  integrate recipient countries into the multilateral
trading system .  To reach this goal, Swiss supported programmes have at least to aim at one of
following three targets: i) strengthening trade po licy formulation and implementation, ii) raising the
efficiency of trade operations, iii) facilitating market access (Swiss and neighbouring markets of the
recipient countries) .  Programmes and projects should promote the private sector and should
complement efforts by recipient countries .  The Government of Switzerland attaches importance on
making use of complementarity between neighbouring countries and developing South-South and
East-East trade as first steps towards economic integration .  In the programmes special attention is
given to the maximum participation of women, to the sustainability of the programmes and to the
enforcement of local capacities (e.g .  training of trainers, use of local consultants) .  As the Swiss
Government is mainly working with external instit utions and organizations so as to implement its
TRTC-activities, Switzerland attaches high importance on international coordination between
international executing agencies.
10. Finally, Switzerland will launch a pilot program in the field of intellectual property protection
(Vietnam) .  This technical assistance program aims not only at strengthening the framework of
intellectual property protection but also at promoting the use of IPR by local enterprises, individualsand communities encouraging transfer of technol ogy and investment by foreign enterprises.
11. At the multilateral level, Switzerland also contributes to a variety of technical assistance trust
funds with the World Bank Group and the Regional Development Banks
.  These funds are available
to project managers of these Banks seeking founding for technical assistance and technology transfer.
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