The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry-DCCI and Ministry of Industries held a seminar on 'IPR for Encouraging Innovation' on the occasion of International Intellectual Property Day-200B on April 26 at the DCCI Auditorium at Motijheel Commercial Area in the city.

The purpose of the seminar was to discuss protection and enforcement of the IPR law so that innovation and investment in this sector could be improved. Terming DCCI the most effective organisation, the past president of DCCI and former president of the AmCham Aftabul Islam, who attended the seminar as the chief guest, called upon the government to set up a centre at the DCCI, in collaboration with the Ministry of Industries, for protection of intellectual property.

He said that the DCCI has been celebrating this day with the Industries Ministry and working towards implementing the laws for protection of intellectual property.

He further said, "If we don't take effective measures to implement intellectual property protection law Bangladesh will experience more brain drain and thus lose huge intellectual property."

Senior vice-president of DCCI, Jalauddin Abdullah, who chaired the seminar, said, "Since we're lagging behind in development programmes, we should pledge to invent new products utilizing our intellectual property."

He also said, "Today Bangladesh is branded as a net food importing country and we import almost everything to meet our needs. But if we can utilise our talents we can change the present scenario of our economy." He also said 90 per cent of the country's entrepreneurs are the SMEs and all assistance should be provided to protect these SME entrepreneurs for innovation of new products and protection of rights, design, patent and trademark technology in order to be more competitive in the international market.

The keynote paper was presented by Mesbahuddin, Registrar, Patent, Design and Trademark Directorate. Ministry of Industries, GoB and Mustafa Jabbar, President of Bangladesh Computer Samity.

Others who took part in the discussion were, DCCI Past President Benazir Ahmed, Vice -President Khondokar Shahidul Islam, DCCI Directors, Syed Moazzem Hossain, Shekil Chowdhury and Mohammad Sharfuddin, Deputy Registrar (patent) Engineer S M Enamul Haq, Deputy Registrar (Trademark), Shahidul Islam, Barrister Tanzibul Alam, Member Copyright Board, Nurul Huda, Advocate Niamat Hossain and Ahmed Hossain Mazumdar.