BANDUNG TO HOST ASIAN-AFRICAN FORUM ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Bandung, W Java - Bandung is to host an "Asian-African Forum on Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expression, Traditional Knowledge and Genetic Resources 2007" on June 18-20, a Foreign Ministry official said.

"The forum is a concrete implementation of a joint commitment made in an international document of the Asian-African Strategic Partnership which was signed during the Asia-Africa Summit in Jakarta in 2005," Ibnu Hadi, Director for Asia Pacific and Africa Inter-Regional Cooperation, said on Monday (4/6/07). 

Indonesian cabinet ministers, ambassadors from Asia and Africa as well as delegates from 106 countries will attend the forum to be organized jointly by the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Affairs Ministry and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), he said.

The aim of the forum would be to encourage the negotiation processes in the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (GRTKF) in WIPO and to create international legal protection for genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore in Asian and African states.

Ibnu Hadi said Indonesia and other developing countries in Asia and Africa abounded in similar flora and fauna species which were under threat of extinction. "If natural biodiversity in Indonesia became extinct, the total of species in the world would be reduced by 17 percent," he said. (Antara 5/6/07)

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