Accra, April 28, GNA - Mr. John Gyetuah, Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, on Monday called on all stakeholders to get involved in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. He said "We must pool resources, both material and human, to raise awareness through sensitization, seminars and initiatives". Mr. Gyetuah, who made the call at this year's World Intellectual Property Day and the launch of the Ghana Anti-Counterfeit Campaign, in Accra, said Ghana should be part of the global efforts to fight counterfeiting and piracy. He said the International Chamber of Commence estimated that 7 per cent of worldwide trade was in counterfeit goods with the counterfeit market being worth over US $500 billion in 2004. Mr. Gyetuah said if practical measures were not taken, counterfeiting of products of intellectual property would rob the nation of its sweat and toil.

Mr. Kofi Essuman, president, Institute of Packaging, Ghana, said intellectual property protection was weak in the country and constituted to be a major deterrent to foreign and domestic investment. He said as the country sought to recruit investment in knowledge-based industries, it must build effective institutions and systems to adequately protect and enforce intellectual property rights. "We need to promote effective communication and co-ordination among enforcement agencies in our West African sub-region with the sole aim of eliminating counterfeited and pirated goods from our markets", Mr. Essuman said. Mr. Joseph Harley, Acting Registrar-General, said the Ghana anti-counterfeiting project was expected to create awareness on the problem of counterfeiting. He said under the project, regulatory bodies and law enforcing agencies would be trained and equipped with tools to enable them to identify fake and counterfeit products. Mr. Harley said the absence of stringent measures to protect intellectual property rights created unfair competition among producers.