TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:
INFORMATION FROM MEMBERS
New
Zealand
The following communication, dated 9 October 2025, is being circulated at the request
of the delegation of New Zealand.
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1 THE
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE OF NEW ZEALAND
1. The Intellectual Property Office of
New Zealand (IPONZ) provides on-going technical assistance on request
to developing and least developed countries. New Zealand will continue to
support future work, on request, to improve the intellectual property systems
of developing countries. IPONZ is recognised for its efficient and effective
online services, high quality examination and registration processes. As a
result, IPONZ hosts delegations and study visits from developing and least
developed countries to provide practical training and knowledge sharing.
2 THE PLANT VARIETY RIGHTS OFFICE (PVRO)
2. New Zealand has been a member of the International Union for the
Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) since 1981. A key
element of UPOV is cooperation between member States and the harmonisation of
testing and examination activity. On an as-requested
basis, New Zealand supplies variety test reports to several members and
utilises testing results from other States for the right decision. Such
activity encourages on going sharing and exchange of technical experience and
expertise between UPOV member States.
3. New
Zealand continues to actively participate in the Council, Consultative
Committee, Administrative and
Legal Committee, Technical Committee and the Technical Working Parties for Agriculture, Ornamentals and for Fruit.
3 AANZFTA ECONOMIC COOPERATION
4. 4The
ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) mandates a programme of technical assistance activities to assist AANZFTA Parties to
operationalise and implement the Agreement,
particularly the "Economic Cooperation" chapter of AANZFTA. Until
June 2022 this was known as the AANZFTA
Economic Cooperation Support Programme (AECSP). New Zealand has committed to continue to fund the AECSP successor programme,
the AANZFTA Implementation Support
Program (AISP), which continues to support AANZFTA Parties to operationalise
and implement the Agreement. The
successor programme became operational in 2022. Like the AECSP, the AISP is
jointly funded by Australia and New Zealand.
5. Projects
funded by the AISP are available to all ten ASEAN member States. The aim of
AANZFTA Economic Cooperation is
to facilitate AANZFTA implementation; progress built-in agenda negotiations;
achieve deeper economic integration among the parties; and increase business utilisation of AANZFTA.