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Sierra Leone President Calls for Seizing Opportunities in Africa

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio. (Reuters)
Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio. (Reuters)
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Sierra Leone President Calls for Seizing Opportunities in Africa

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio. (Reuters)
Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio. (Reuters)

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio stressed Thursday importance of working towards attaining political stability, grasping and exploiting opportunities for the best of the African continent.

Speaking during the inauguration of the sixth International Africa Development Forum (FIAD) in Casablanca, he emphasized that Africa has enormous potentials, a high population and diverse natural resources.

He added that Africa offers huge opportunities for African investors in various sectors, underlining the need to fill the infrastructure gap. Maada Bio praised the commitment of Morocco's King Mohammed VI to the development in the African continent.

The forum is meant to bring together and connect 2,000 African figures from the worlds of business, finance and politics.

Mohamed El Kettani, Chairman and CEO of Attijariwafa Bank Group, said that the purpose of the forum is to gather all African actors in order to mull challenges facing Africa and possible means to transform them into opportunities.

Africa represents a “hope” to global growth since it maintains a reliable approach amid a fluctuating environment, he added.

African economic growth reached 3.5 percent in 2018 and is anticipated to rise to 4 percent in 2019, while inflation average dropped to 10.9 percent in 2018 from 12.6 percent in 2017, and is forecast to drop to 8.1 percent in 2020, he noted.

Africa has opportunities as much as it has challenges, Kettani said.

Regional integration is a key topic in the forum and significant progress has been made on the institutional level in which 44 out of 54 African states are now involved in regional federations, he stated, while highlighting efforts to establish an African free trade zone.

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Saudi Arabia Makes History with Adoption of Riyadh Treaty on Design Law

Photo of the Riyadh Diplomatic Conference on the Design Law Treaty (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Photo of the Riyadh Diplomatic Conference on the Design Law Treaty (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia Makes History with Adoption of Riyadh Treaty on Design Law

Photo of the Riyadh Diplomatic Conference on the Design Law Treaty (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Photo of the Riyadh Diplomatic Conference on the Design Law Treaty (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia has made history by uniting the 193 member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to adopt the Riyadh Treaty on Design Law. This landmark achievement, realized after two decades of deliberation, underscores the Kingdom’s leadership in enhancing the global intellectual property system.

The announcement came at the conclusion of the Riyadh Diplomatic Conference on the Design Law Treaty, a rare event for WIPO, which has not held a diplomatic conference outside Geneva for more than a decade. It was also the first such event hosted in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, representing the final stage of negotiations to establish an agreement aimed at simplifying and standardizing design protection procedures across member states.

Over the past two weeks, intensive discussions and negotiations among member states culminated in the adoption of the Riyadh Treaty, which commits signatory nations to a unified set of requirements for registering designs, ensuring consistent and streamlined procedures worldwide. The agreement is expected to have a significant positive impact on designers, enabling them to protect their creations more effectively and uniformly across international markets.

At a press conference held on Friday to mark the event’s conclusion, CEO of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property Abdulaziz Al-Suwailem highlighted the economic potential of the new protocol.

Responding to a question from Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Suwailem noted the substantial contributions of young Saudi men and women in creative design. He explained that the agreement will enable their designs to be formally protected, allowing them to enter markets as valuable, tradable assets.

He also emphasized the symbolic importance of naming the convention the Riyadh Treaty, stating that it reflects Saudi Arabia’s growing influence as a bridge between cultures and a global center for innovative initiatives.

The treaty lays critical legal foundations to support designers and drive innovation worldwide, aligning with Saudi Arabia’s vision of promoting international collaboration in the creative industries and underscoring its leadership in building a sustainable future for innovators.

The agreement also advances global efforts to enhance creativity, protect intellectual property, and stimulate innovation on a broader scale.

This achievement further strengthens Saudi Arabia’s position as a global hub for groundbreaking initiatives, demonstrating its commitment to nurturing creativity, safeguarding designers’ rights, and driving the development of creative industries on an international scale.

The Riyadh Diplomatic Conference, held from November 11 to 22, was hosted by the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property and attracted high-ranking officials and decision-makers from WIPO member states.