ASEAN urged to develop laws/networks to protect intellectual property

BANGKOK, July 21 (TNA) - ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan has suggested that member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Thailand, develop laws and networks to protect their intellectual property so that the 10-nation bloc can become a major source of products and services of the world. Surin told a seminar on the preparation of ASEAN members for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), held in Bangkok on Friday, that the AEC, which was set to be established by 2015, could then create a combined economic value of as much as 2.6 trillion US dollars, which would be the ninth largest among worldwide economies. Surin, therefore, called on the Thai government to also increase budgets for research and development to improve designs and values of Thai products and business operators, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in ASEAN to develop their own brands, products and services, increase the values of their products and services and sell them overseas to increase national incomes. According to the ASEAN chief, mutual trade of ASEAN member countries now account for only 25 per cent of their overall international trade; while mutual trade among member countries in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the European Union (EU) form some 45 per cent and 68 per cent of their total trade respectively. Meanwhile, Pajchima Tanasanti, Director-General of the Thai Ministry of Commerce's Department of Intellectual Property, acknowledged that Thai business operators have the best designing capabilities in ASEAN and have remained in the top 20 ranking among worldwide operators in designing, but their designs have neither be developed nor well-known due to insufficient intellectual property protection, recommending that the Thai business operators work harder in the AEC so that their intellectual property will enable them to compete in the integrated regional market. (TNA)