The copyright workshop to be organised by the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) has been slated for the 28th and 29th August 2012 at the Dunes Resort in Kololi, according to the Council’s copyright office.

Confirming to the Daily Observer, the director of Copyrights at the NCAC, Hassoum Ceesay, said the workshop is in response to a request made by the government and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). He informed that the workshop will focus on the country’s national study on the economic role of copyright and related rights industries in The Gambia.

The Copyright director added that the study would avail the government and stakeholders have empirical data on the range, scale and economic potential of copyright industries in the country; something he said will be useful in seeking technical and financial assistance from local and international partners.

Ceesay revealed that the component of this activity is a pre-study national workshop that is also funded by WIPO in collaboration with the NCAC, to enable the consultant and stakeholders in the copyright sector be briefed on the modalities of the study. He concluded that the opening ceremony of the two-day workshop would be presided over by the minister of Tourism and Culture, Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie, and a four-person team from WIPO, Geneva.

The upcoming two days’ workshop would also fulfil the role of sensitising rights holders, users and the copyright administrators on the economic benefits of copyright; hence it will help to ginger up stakeholders, particularly creators, to put all hands on deck for the realisation of the Gambia Collecting Society.