WIPO, A Well-Funded UN Agency, Presents Its Next Budget To Members

The finances of the World Intellectual Property Organization are healthy to say the least. The United Nations organisation, the only one able to feed its budget from user fees, shows a net result of over US$30 million. This week, WIPO member states are considering the budget for the 2018/2019 biennium, and as well which countries should be chosen to hold external WIPO offices.

The 26^th session of the WIPO Program and Budget Committee is taking place from 10-14 July.

Opening the session this morning, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry commented on WIPO good financial results in 2016, which yielded a net result of CHF32 million Swiss francs (US$33 million), and a net asset of approximately CHF311 million (US$321 million).

A document [pdf] detailing the preliminary results of WIPO financial situation as of 31 December 2016 shows that the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and the system of trademark registration under the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks are providing the bulk of the WIPO income. The PCT contributes to 75 percent of the budget, and the Madrid system to 15.4 percent.

He also underlined that, as stated in the Program Performance Report for 2016 [pdf], some 72 percent of performance indicator ratings in the Program and Budget 2016/2017 have been assessed as on track.

The report says that out of a total of 455 performances indicator ratings, 329 have been assessed as on track, while 82 indicators were not on track, the rest being either non-assessable or discontinued. Gurry said WIPO is “well on track to repeat the performances” of the first year of the biennium in 2017.

The committee is to consider the first submission of the draft program and budget [pdf] for the next biennium 2018/2019. The estimated revenue for this new biennium is expected to rise by 10.4 percent, he said, bringing the overall revenue to CHF 826.2 million (US$854 million). This is the first time, Gurry said, that a biennium would achieve revenue over CHF 800 million.

Although the expected rise in revenue is about 10 percent, the rise in expected expenditure has been limited to 2.7 percent, with staff costs contained at 0.8 percent, to answer some concerns voiced by member states in the past, Gurry said.

The good financial results of WIPO have been achieved without any fee increase, according to Gurry, who added that fees have not been increased for the last four biennia. This achievement has been reached notably through increased productivity, and in particular information technology platforms, he said. He added that WIPO has achieved “very good deep machine learning” for translations, which makes it the first artificial intelligence application in WIPO, with “extremely good results.” He predicted further artificial intelligence application in WIPO, in particular digital tutoring in the WIPO Academy.

According to Gurry, the WIPO programmes are developed taking the WIPO Development Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals as guiding principles.

Some countries, such as the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC) represented by Paraguay, underlined the importance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the WIPO Development Agenda in WIPO’s activities.

The African Group and Brazil suggested using the financial surplus towards technical assistance and capacity building for developing and least-developed countries.

Some countries this morning questioned the suggestion of WIPO to decrease by 10 percent the country contributions and wanted to understand the potential consequences of this decrease, its costs and benefits.

Gurry also underlined the decision of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) after a cost of living survey, to lower the salary of Geneva-based higher staff by some 7.5 percent. He said there is an ongoing collective action by all Geneva-based organisations to challenge the “flawed methodology” in the survey. The ICSC is expected to consider this submission later this week, he said.

The scale for professional and high-level UN staff is here. UN salaries are adjusted to different duty stations to cover for higher costs of living than those in New York.

Higher staff categories at WIPO represent about CHF183 million, Gurry said.

The PBC discussed the Program Performance Report for 2016 this morning, and the proposed resolution was approved. The resolution says that the Program Performance Report has been reviewed by the PBC, and recognising its nature as a self-assessment of the secretariat, recommends that the annual WIPO General Assembly (in October) acknowledge the progress made in 2016.

In its opening statement, Japan for the Group B developed countries speaking on governance had particular questions on the cost of meetings. In particular the delegate asked about the cost of one week of meeting, of the hourly rate of overtime interpretation, and of each extra hour of meeting time.

External WIPO Offices

One of the major discussions [pdf] of this session of the PBC is expected to be on the choice of three new WIPO offices outside of Geneva, selected from nine candidates for the 2018/2019 biennium.

The candidate countries are: Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Oman, South Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Last year, the WIPO General Assembly agreed on opening two new WIPO offices, one in Algeria, and the other one in Nigeria. The General Assembly further agreed “to continue consultations on the opening of one External Office in the current biennium and three External Offices in the 2018-2019 biennium …” (IPW, WIPO, 12 October 2016).

The PBC today began consideration of the draft proposed program and budget for the 2018/2019 biennium and is expected to continue on 11 and 12 July, according to a tentative agenda.

 

Image Credits: WIPO