On June 24, 2021, a webinar was held on the topic: "Kazakhstan's Judicial Cycle of Development – Improving the Regulatory Framework: Intellectual Property (IP) Standards, Property and Business Registration, Civil Act Registration"
Kazakhstan ranks third in the global innovation index of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the UNDP experts recommended the creation of a specialized court on intellectual property issues in Kazakhstan
These and much more were discussed by international experts in the framework of an online webinar organized by the World Bank jointly with the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan on June 24, 2021 on the topic: “Kazakhstan's Judicial Cycle of Development – Improving the Regulatory Framework: Intellectual Property (IP) Standards, Property and Business Registration, Civil Act Registration”.
The event represented the fourth webinar session as part of series of webinars hosted by the World Bank that explores Kazakhstan’s judicial reform cycle and its approach to strengthening its institutional and regulatory framework.
In his opening remarks, Arman Vatyan, Governance Focal Point Central Asia, Lead Governance Specialist, World Bank, thanked the Ministry of Justice for organizing a series of webinars together with the World Bank and introduced the key topic of the session, noting that this is a key factor that allows the legislator to improve the business environment in Kazakhstan.
Mr. Victor Vasquez Lopez, Acting Director of the Department for Countries with Economies in Transition and Developed Countries of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), welcoming the participants of the webinar and noted that Kazakhstan ranks third among the countries of Central and South Asia in the global innovation index of the WIPO for 2020. Mr. Vasquez also noted that Kazakhstan takes an active position regarding the development of the intellectual property of the energy infrastructure in the country.
In her welcoming speech, Vice-Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan Akerke Akhmetova drew attention to Kazakhstan's efforts to improve public services in the registration sphere and in the field of intellectual property. According to the Vice-Minister, a number of public services have been transferred to an electronic format, which made it possible to exclude the appeal of service recipients to the registration authority.
The first speaker, Emil Mammadov, Vice-President of the Eurasian Patent Office, Doctor of Economics, in his report spoke about the activities and advantages of the Eurasian Patent Organization, to which Kazakhstan has been a member since November 5, 1995. Mr. Mammadov pointed out that “15 years ago applications from Kazakhstan to EAPO was between 15-20 but now it was increased 6 times. So, every year EAPO receives 100 applications from Kazakhstan. The majority of applications are in the area of construction, computer equipment, organic chemistry”.
International experts of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Boyan Konstantinov and Olga Gurgula, speaking on the topic of Intellectual Property Development for Better Business Environment, Skills Development and Set up of the State-of-the-Art IP Center in Kazakhstan, noted that “Kazakhstan has made an amazing job of bringing national IP legislation in a line with its international obligations and high standards.The UNDP experts said that “the courts [Kazakhstan’s national courts] at the moment require more knowledge and skills to deal with complex cases related to IP rights. In this regard one of the strategic goals to create a specialization, and in the future specialized IP court.”
In her turn, a senior consultant of the law firm ReedSmith, Azhar Kuzutbayeva, described the work the firm had done to develop the field of intellectual property as a consultant of the Ministry of Justice. She explained that, as a part of the work, a set of questions was prepared to assess the state of IP regulation in Kazakhstan, and she pointed out that “in many questions, asked by the Ministry of Justice, the experts confirmed the compliance of the legislation of Kazakhstan with the best international practice”.
Another international expert, Saule Zhussupbekova, commenting on Kazakhstan’s regulatory framework, mentioned that the legislation of Kazakhstan [in the sphere of intellectual property] “in many areas is compliant with international standards”.
Another topic of the webinar session was devoted to the field of registration of business, property, and civil acts.
The representative of the Ministry of Justice, Alan Tlenchiyev, from his part, gave a broad overview of recent developments in the field. Among other things, he gave an example that “to start a business what people will have to do is to fill in an electronic form in the E-gov portal and the company will be registered within one hour”.
Another international expert, Vakhtang Lejava, indicated positive trends of the Kazakhstani reforms. He noted that “Kazakhstan has made a great job in this direction . . . During the last 7 years, while Kazakhstan moved from the 77th place in Doing Business ranking to the 25th place, 7 legal packages were prepared to support those reforms.”
Mr. Lejava also commented that these reforms were really useful in relation to the COVID-19 situation. “We see that these reforms are not only good in advancing in the ranking, but they create necessary flexibility and resilience for the economies to really react or absorb the crisis”, – he said.
In his closing remarks, a representative of the World Bank, Waleed Malik said that “the mere fact that was raised by our colleague from Georgia, that Kazakhstan has improved the rankings from 77th to 25th in Doing Business is a clear indication and the result of all the efforts, not just of this panel today, but all the other areas that the Ministry of Justice and justice institutions in Kazakhstan and the government as a whole has actually put in to improve its investment climate, which is reflected in this ranking as a result.