Singapore’s Daren Tang set for top job at UN's World Intellectual Property Organization after winning vote

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s Daren Tang is set to become the new Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo), after beating five other candidates during a vote in Geneva on Wednesday (March 4).

He was nominated for the post by a Wipo committee comprising representatives from more than 80 countries.

Amid a high profile dispute between the United States and China over the latter's representative for the top job, the shortlist whittled down by almost half before Wednesday's vote.

The final round saw Mr Tang up against Ms Wang Binying from China. Mr Tang prevailed with 55 votes to 28, according to Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh, who hailed the nomination as a “happy day for Singapore and for all the small countries of the world”. 

Mr Tang is expected to be appointed at a special session of the Wipo General Assembly, which is scheduled to meet on May 7 and 8 later this year.

He is slated to take office at the end of September, and will serve a six-year term. The current Director General, Mr Francis Gurry, is due to retire on Sept 30 following the completion of two six-year terms.

Wipo is one of several specialised agencies at the United Nations (UN), and serves to promote the protection of intellectual property around the world.

In a Facebook post early on Thursday (March 5), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that this is the first time a Singaporean has been nominated for the leadership position of a UN Agency.

“(I) am grateful the Wipo Coordination Committee supported Daren. We look forward to Wipo’s General Assembly approving Daren’s appointment as Director General in May 2020,” said Mr Lee.

Mr Tang currently serves as the chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) — a statutory board under the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) — and has a background in government, including as a trade negotiator. He did his graduate studies in law in the United States, and was a lead negotiator in the Singapore-US free trade agreement.

He has served as the chair of the Wipo Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights for several years, and has been credited with moving highly fraught negotiations forward with diplomatic skill.

Mr Tang is said to be able to bridge the North-South divide in Wipo, and is seen as having the support of developed countries as well as developing countries who may look to the Singapore model of successful growth with IP.

In a media release, MinLaw and Ipos said that Mr Tang drove the strategic transformation of Ipos from an IP registry and regulator into “an innovation agency that helps to build Singapore’s future economy”. His term saw major updates to Singapore’s IP Hub Masterplan, legislative and policy reforms to the IP regime and a scaling up of international engagement. 

Today, Ipos has cooperation agreements with over 70 regional and international partners.  

Under Mr Tang’s leadership, Ipos was recognised as Asia’s most innovative IP office and ranked second in the world by the World Trademark Review last year. Singapore has also been ranked second in the world for IP protection by the World Economic Forum (2018/2019), and one of the top 10 countries in Wipo’s annual Global Innovation Index since 2015.

REACTIONS

Mr Tang said he was “humbled and honoured” by the nomination, and stressed that the process was “a team effort across many government agencies” including Ipos, MinLaw, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Trade and Industry, and Singapore’s diplomatic missions around the world. 

He added: “There were many well-qualified candidates who contested through a fair, open and transparent process, and this shows how important Wipo is to the global community. I look forward to the confirmation of the nomination... and to jointly write the next chapter of Wipo’s future.”

Senior Minister of State (Law and Health) Edwin Tong noted that Wipo’s support “when Singapore was still a young country in our formative years, enabled us to develop a strong IP regime in Singapore”. 

He said: “We are very grateful for the strong show of support from the Wipo Coordination Committee for Daren. I am confident that, if approved by the Wipo General Assembly in May, Daren will serve Wipo’s interests well, connecting countries and regions across the world.”

Apart from Mr Tang, the other candidates for the top job were Ms Wang, Mr Marco Matías Alemán (Colombia), Mr Ivo Gagliuffi Piercechi (Peru), Dr Edward Kwakwa (Ghana) and Ms Saule Tlevlessova (Kazakhstan). 

Writing on Facebook, Prof Koh noted that there were nine contenders for the role at first, with the final contest between the candidates from China and Singapore.

“In a world dominated by the big countries it is difficult for an outstanding candidate from a small country to defeat the candidate from a big country,” he added.

“Small countries are however empowered by the principle of sovereignty equality and by democracy. These are two of the principles of the UN system and of the multilateral institutions.”

The election process took place against the backdrop of the political dispute between the US and China. 

Former White House aide John Bolton had said that the appointment of Ms Wang for the post “represented a threat to the intellectual property system”, while China has accused the US of trying to manipulate the nomination process for political gain.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo congratulated Mr Tang on his nomination, and said the US looked forward to working with him to safeguard intellectual property.

“Mr Tang is an effective advocate for protecting intellectual property, a vocal proponent of transparency and institutional integrity, and a leader who can unify Wipo member states by forging consensus on difficult issues,” said Mr Pompeo.