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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster the protection of intellectual property rights for products from the region.
Due to lack of protection of intellectual property rights, businesses in SADC and the continent at large have been subjected to several challenges, including ownership of their products being claimed by manufacturers from other nations.
As a result, the region has suffered loss of competitive advantage, jobs, and revenue; brand damage, innovation disincentive, reduced research and development, and damage to creativity.
As such, SADC and ARIPO yesterday marked a historic moment when the two organisations signed the MoU to safeguard, through patents, products manufactured in the region. Protecting intellectual property rights is critical for the bloc to maintain a competitive edge, foster innovation, and accelerate economic growth.
This is particularly important at a time when the continent has operationalised the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement that aims to eliminate tariffs on 90 percent of goods traded between member States over a 10-year period.
A 16-member group, SADC comprises countries that include Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Malawi, Eswatini, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar, and Mauritius. Products from the region that have been subject to violation of property rights include pharmaceutical and medicinal products produced by traditional healers.
The other products include agro-processed foods, clothing and textile, artefacts, and chemical products, among others.
Speaking during the MoU signing ceremony in Harare yesterday, SADC secretariat executive secretary Mr Elias Makgosi said: “We are signing a very important instrument between SADC and ARIPO, that recognises the importance of intellectual property rights. We really protect international property in the region, and those traditional healers that we have portrayed out there, have got knowledge and expertise that we need to preserve and protect.
“This is why we are signing an instrument like this ourselves who drive businesses, SMEs and indigenous knowledge —we have to work with those who are experts in developing intellectual property and the preservation of those rights.”
The signing of the MoU, which was met with thunderous applause from the delegates was witnessed by Government officials from across SADC, representatives of regional and international financial institutions such as the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and World Bank as well as officials from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. The event took place at the ongoing 7th SADC Industrialisation Week (SIW), which got underway in Harare on Sunday under the theme, “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development: Towards an Industrialised SADC”, ends on Friday.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga on Monday officially opened the region’s high-powered and oversubscribed investment conference at a colourful ceremony that was attended by delegates from across the region and representatives from financial institutions such as the African Development Bank and Afreximbank, Ministers of Trade and Commerce from the region, the private sector players and investment promotion agencies, among others. Over 1 350 individuals from across SADC are attending the SIW where more than 350 exhibitors and 13 officials from the region’s secretariat are also participating.
President Mnangagwa is expected to officially open the SIW today. Through the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap, the region is forging ahead with positioning itself to tap into the gigantic market presented by the AfCFTA whose population stands at about 1,4 billion with a Gross Domestic Product of nearly US$16,2 trillion.
In his address during the signing ceremony ARIPO director for intellectual property, Mr David Njuguna, said his organisation intended to bring the protection of intellectual property rights to a level where it transformed people’s livelihoods in SADC and the continent at large.
“Intellectual property is extremely important and we want to bring it to a level where it impacts people’s lives, it changes people’s livelihoods in the area of presentation of traditional knowledge. We have some of the protocols on traditional knowledge . . . which brings together an environment where the communities can benefit.
“It’s an exciting moment, but basically we are looking at ARIPO as we work with SADC for capacity building in issues of intellectual property, technical assistance, sharing information and growing entrepreneurship.
“So, it is indeed an exciting moment, the future is looking extremely bright,” he said.
ARIPO, which is an inter-governmental organisation for cooperation among African States in patent and other intellectual property matters, currently comprises 22 member States from which 50 percent of the countries are in SADC.
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