ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce & Textile Pervaiz Malik has stressed the need for the development of socio-economic growth through innovation and creativity and said that Intellectual Property Organization (IPO-Pakistan) was motivating students and entrepreneurs to translate their ideas into products and services to materialize this fact. He expressed these views while addressing a seminar held in connection with the World Intellectual Property Day (World IP Day) organized by Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan (IPO-Pakistan) here. “Innovation and creativity have not only become major drivers of socio-economic growth but also are considered essential tools for development of any society”, he said adding that the theme of this year’s World IP Day which was “Powering Change: Women in innovation and creativity” was very much relevant to the modern times need. The minister highlighted the importance of realization of taking benefit from women’s intelligence and aesthetics by engaging them in different fields of everyday activities and said that the 2018’s World IP Day theme was an acknowledgement and gratitude to this fact. Malik voiced for providing equal opportunities to all genders for utilizing their skills, knowledge and expertise in the areas like science, technology, arts, medicine, services and international trade and expressed the confidence that it was the only way for achieving a healthy and robust growth of not only economy but society as well. The Commerce Minister spoke at length about the importance of intellectual property rights and role of Intellectual Property Organization (IPO-Pakistan) in this regard. Talking about involving research and academia in the process of creating awareness about IP rights, the minister said, “Twenty-seven universities and research institutes in Pakistan have been linked to the world IP community under the Technology Innovation Support Centers (TISCs) program with active support of Higher Education Commission (HEC) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)”. This has been done to engage large number of female students and women entrepreneurs to register their IP creations with IPO-Pakistan registries. The Minister assured unflinching support to IPO-Pakistan for the protection of IP rights in the country and continuing working for the improvement of IP ecosystem in Pakistan. Earlier, Capt (retd) Javed Abid, Additional Secretary (Trade Policy) in his remarks symbolized empowering of women with empowering of societies and said that this empowerment ultimately leads to development and prosperity of the societies. Appreciating the role of IPO-Pakistan, the Additional Secretary said that IPO was putting up great efforts for engaging institutional stakeholders in creating awareness about IP rights and expanded its enforcement coordination mechanism to encourage IP rights holder to register their IPRs. Muhammad Irfan Tarar, Director General, IPO-Pakistan thanked the Chief Guest, speakers and audience for attending the seminar and highlighted the achievements of IPO-Pakistan. He said that in the short span of time, IPO-Pakistan has achieved milestone achievements including; streamlining of IP system, intensified IPR awareness campaign, and establishment of TISC centers in universities and upgradation of IP Laws. Meanwhile, reviving of automation project, e-filing, e-payment and e-search for IP applications will be initiated shortly. Meanwhile, prominent speakers highlighted different aspects of IP rights, innovation and women role in this regard. Prominent among the speakers include; Prof. Dr. Samina Amin Qadir, Vice Chancellor, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Prof. Hina Tayyaba Khalil, Vice Chancellor, Pakistan Institute of Fashion & Design Ms. Falahat Imran, President, Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Lahore and Mr. Ejaz Gul, prominent film writer. Published in Daily Times, April 26th 2018.