Leveraging the creative economy can provide developing countries with a unique pathway towards attaining sustainable development. The creative economy can be defined broadly “as a dynamic blend of creative industries that cover all cycles of creation, production, and distribution of goods and services that use intellectual capital as primary inputs”. The creative economy has the potential to be a key sector driving job creation and innovation in developing countries. Furthermore, there is increasing recognition of the contribution of the creative economy towards trade and economic growth.

The meeting will discuss the opportunities and needs of LDCs in the Asia and the Pacific region in the area of invention, innovation and technological capacity building and the intellectual property rights system. The program will provide a platform to assess the policy, technical and institutional needs in the area of intellectual property rights of individual LDCs. The meeting will also discuss how countries can leverage, through national, regional and sub-regional partnerships, WIPO’s and United Nations ESCAP’s expertise and institutional capacity.