National Statement by IPOS CE Mrs Rena Lee at the World Intellectual Property Organization 64th Series of Meetings of the Assemblies

Good afternoon Madam Chair,

Director General

Excellencies,

Dear colleagues,

1 Thank you very much to the Director General and the WIPO Secretariat for your hard work and excellent preparations for this Meeting. And to you Madam Chair, let me assure you of our support in making this Assemblies a successful one. We align ourselves with the statements made on behalf of the Asia-Pacific Group and ASEAN.

2 WIPO remains for us an important partner in our collective efforts to leverage IP and innovation to drive socioeconomic development. Our collaboration across WIPO Sectors, and regional partnerships with the WIPO Singapore Office (WSO), as well as the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (WIPO Center), have produced tangible and impactful outcomes. And these include areas of capacity building and raising IP awareness. Singapore looks forward to working with the WSO and the WIPO Center on IP management, alternative dispute resolution and providing support for entrepreneurship.

3 Building a credible intangibles valuation and reporting ecosystem, and helping innovative enterprises use their IP to grow, remain core priorities for Singapore. We hope to work closely with WIPO for support in these areas. A recent study by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) revealed that Singapore companies with the most valuable brands and/or the largest patent portfolios had about double the revenue, net profit and market capitalisation compared to those without. In that context, we have launched initiatives, some in collaboration with WIPO, to support SMEs and start-ups in their IP journey. They include mentorship and inventor assistance programmes, and our new IPOS Digital Hub e-service platform.

4 Finally, we'd like to commend WIPO for your strong financial performance that reflects the Organization’s sound governance and financial management, and we reiterate our commitment to play a constructive role in WIPO for the discussions over the next week.

Thank you Madam Chair.