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Monday, November 16, 2015 | By Dennis Cakert
The 2015 International Property Rights Index (IPRI) was
officially launched this morning in Kuala Lampur, hosted by Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Director of
Southeast Asia Network for Development (SEANET). Today featured an introduction
to the IPRI given by the Executive Director of the Property Rights Alliance,
Lorenzo Montanari, followed by a presentation on this year’s findings by the
2014-2015 Hernando De Soto Fellow, Prof.
Sary Levy Carciente….
Lorenzo Montanari
released this statement earlier this morning:
“The 2015 IPRI
emphasizes the necessity of property rights for creating a free market and
driving economic growth” said Lorenzo Montanari, Executive Director of the
Property Rights Alliance, “but we also recognize that property rights are first
of all a matter of human rights. Property rights are directly related to the
values and principles of individual liberty. The special case studies in this
year’s edition demonstrate the importance of property rights for women and the
poor in developing countries. This year data was available in countries where
it was previously not, which is a good sign for future improvement. There are
now 129 countries included in the analysis, up from 97 countries in last year’s
edition. Countries that had strong property rights systems experienced
significantly higher GDP per capita. In the EU, for example, IP accounts for 26
percent of employment and 39 percent of GDP. Societies undoubtedly achieve
greater societal development by protecting property rights of authors,
entrepreneurs, artists, innovators and inventors.”
There was also a presentation from Ganesh Muren, founder of Saora Industries, a Malaysian Innovative
Social Enterprise that specializes in delivering safe and clean drinking water
to rural and marginalised communities. Saora has innovated a proprietary solar
powered water purification system that is able to purify any surface water
(e.g. river water, rain water, pond) to safe clean drinking water through
nanotechnology. The competitive advantage of Saora is their intellectual
property. They have developed proprietary nanotechnology that replaces the
usage of UV light to kill and eliminate bacteria and viruses. The affordability
of this new technology developed by Saora makes it appealing and reachable to
the poor, those at the “bottom of the pyramid”.
Mr. Burhan Irwan
Cheong, Malaysia’s Lead Negotiator for the IP Chapter, Ministry for
Domestic Trade, Cooperatices, and Consumerism, presented on the Intellectual
Property Chapter in the TPPA and how it will implement a fair and transparent
patent system in member countries. Young entrepreneurs like Ganesh Muren is a
perfect example about how the TPPA will contribute to protecting the patent on
his water purification system. Without the certainty of the rule of law,
innovation does not exist.
Lastly, Bienvenido
Oplas Jr., President of Minimal Government Thinkers in the Philippines and
a SEANET Senior Fellow, presented his economic analysis on the benefits of the
TPP for trade. His extensive research showed that if the Philippines joins the
TPP, exports are expected to rise 48 percent and real GDP will increase 61
percent. He also spoke regarding the importance of property rights to maintain
order in society, while debunking the myth that IP hurts public health, proving
instead that government taxation of medicine is the real problem.
------------Afternoon of that day, Dr. Sary Levy was interviewed in Bloomberg TV Malaysia, live. The place is outside KL proper.
The interviewer was a pretty and very articulate lady.
Among the footages shown while Prof. Levy was speaking. It's Wan, the CEO of IDEAS and Director of SEANET.
See also:
IPR and Innovation 26, Countries with most patent applications, most innovative universities, September 19, 2015
IPR and Innovation 27, India strengthening its IP protection, September 30, 2015
IPR and Innovation 28, Recent IP development in Singapore, October 10, 2015
IPR and Innovation 29, Civil society enforcement of patents, copyrights, January 18, 2016
BWorld 26, IPRI 2015 in APEC economies, November 19, 2015
Free Trade 57, Growth, IPRI 2015 and the TPP, November 28, 2015
