A total of 28 senior officials working in the areas of health, intellectual property and trade from WTO Arab and Middle East members and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) took part in the multi-agency Regional Trade and Public Health Workshop, held in Kuwait from 10 to 14 December.
The workshop was hosted by the International Monetary Fund Middle East Center for Economics and Finance (IMF-CEF) and benefited from close collaboration with the secretariats of the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the WTO.
In his opening remarks, IMF-CEF Director, Dr Paulo Drummond, emphasized the importance of creating synergies between trade policy and public health initiatives to ensure people’s well-being while fostering economic growth.
The five-day programme was designed to foster a multidisciplinary approach, including practical insights into how trade policy can support access to health technologies, the role of intellectual property (IP), and exploring practical experiences and support options for technology transfer.
Participants from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, the Sultanate of Oman, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the GCC shared their national experiences, helping to establish a common understanding for addressing the intricate and ever-evolving challenges at the intersection of trade, IP and public health.
Participants actively engaged in discussions on practical pathways to foster close collaboration, communication and coordination between the relevant sectors and related authorities. A key takeaway included setting up ecosystems that foster technology transfer between the academic sector, government agencies and the private sector to support the knowledge-based economy in the region.
Dr Sultana Al Sabahi, Senior Health Economist at the Ministry of Health of Oman, noted that “public policy tools like intellectual property and awareness raising can support the next frontier of innovation and access to health technologies in our region”.
The closing round table provided an opportunity for participants to discuss takeaways and areas for future work. Participants converged on the need for agile collaboration among different government authorities to find practical solutions and formulate initiatives to further integrate trade, intellectual property and health policies.
The WTO Secretariat tailors workshops for specific regions and sub-regions.
Source: wto.org (Collected by Pham Bang Tam)