The 50th Jubilee Session of the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations specialized agency, was opened by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Serbia to the Office of the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Ugljesa Zvekic, on 1 October 2012.

In 2011, the Republic of Serbia was elected Chair of the WIPO General Assembly for a two-year term of office, which is the first time that this high office is held by a representative of a country of South Eastern Europe. This is recognition of Serbia's reputation, and of its visibly active and distinguished participation in the work of the United Nations. A contribution to that end is certainly to be credited to the ninety-year-long tradition of the Institute of Intellectual Property of the Republic of Serbia.

In his opening address marking the beginning of the deliberations at the WIPO General Assembly, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Serbia called on the participants to devote particular attention to the following important issues.

First and foremost, it is necessary to agree on the strategic goals and ways and means of political engagement in the field of promotion of innovations and intellectual property rights protection. Innovations are the strongest generator and indicator of the level and quality of the development of modern global society. This is true not only of the scope of innovations but also of innovation efficacy, providing great opportunities for middle and less developed countries, including Serbia. The importance of innovative, educational and scientific development policies rests upon these foundations.

It is necessary to facilitate work on the adoption of international legal instruments (conventions, treaties) to the effect of promoting, protecting and making use of the results of creative work. Therefore, the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances, adopted in mid-2012, is of historic importance. The Permanent Representative of Serbia called for speeding up the work on the elaboration of a convention on the rights of the persons with impaired vision, confident that it will be adopted in the middle of 2013.

The participants of the WIPO General Assembly, due to wind up on 9 October 2012, are delegations of more than 180 Member States and a number of international and non-governmental organizations, including observers from the private sector.

The General Assembly sessions of special international treaties and arrangements in the fields of patents, design, geographic origin, etc. will be held in the same time period.