Intellectual property to boost development

Recognising the important role intellectual property plays in the development of emerging economies Cameroon has set up a national development plan in a bid to improve the quality of creativity.

The National Development Plan of Intellectual Property (NDPIP), which will run from 2014 until 2018, was at the heart of a workshop held in Yaounde on Thursday.

With this tool, designers can improve in all areas of health, technology, culture and entertainment. It is in this sense intellectual property remains an important link in creativity because it saves the technical capacity of the inventors, if, and only if, they think it may qualify intellectually and technologically.

Methods used by designers to express their creative genius in other places are becoming increasingly more innovative. Hence the explosion of design work demands. This securement is a necessity for players who still need to take ownership of IP. This is to establish a synergy of action for the government to achieve its development goals of the national economy.

Emmanuel Bonde, Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development, chaired the workshop, together Ama Tutu Muna, Secretary of the Arts and Culture. For Mr Bonde, it is a question of boosting creativity to protect new inventions and using them to boost development.

He said: "We have in our traditional habits things which we can rediscover and adapt to new technologies to boost development. This means that we must not rest on our laurels, but upgrade what we have.”

Tchato Herman, Director of the Africa Department of Special Projects at the World Intellectual Property Organization, stressed the importance of integrating intellectual property in the development process of the country, meaning it contributes to encourage competitiveness and create jobs.

It therefore becomes urgent to raise awareness among other stakeholders to strengthen human capacity for creativity, intensify the protection and exploitation of intellectual property assets and increase productivity by boosting diversification and competitiveness of Cameroonian industries.

Not forgetting the promotion of traditional medicine, literary, and cultural expressions of folklore for the "made in Cameroon" label to take off.