Sylhet – Bangladesh has been put on the USA’s watch list of countries that allow operations of some Pakistani companies producing pirated versions of multi-media compact disks (CDs), and digital video disks (DVDs) violating intellectual property rights (IPR). Due to the inclusion of Bangladesh on the list, the United States Trade Representatives (USTR) can now suggest its entrepreneurs to withdraw their investments from the country or to impose a trade embargo on the country. According to a report titled ‘Special 301′ on the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights (IPR), published by the Office of the US Trade Representatives, some pirate optical disk manufacturing plants migrated to Bangladesh from Pakistan due to the latter’s crackdown on those.
The report released on April 30, 2007 said currently six optical disc plants producing pirated products are operating in Bangladesh and are exporting to India and Europe, as well as saturating the local market. The USTR report suggested Bangladesh to introduce regulations controlling optical disc manufacturing so that the Bangladeshi authorities can issue licenses to manufacturers, and law enforcers can inspect the plants. It also suggested if any plant is found guilty of piracy, it should be closed down and its owners should be prosecuted.
The report said the harm from the practice of piracy in Bangladesh is not only to the US and other countries that have similar businesses, but is also felt keenly by Bangladeshi genuine entrepreneurs. It said the Bangladesh government’s response to the problem is inadequate in terms of results from enforcement actions taken. A high official of the commerce ministry said the country’s name had been first included on the watch list in 2004, but later USTR dropped Bangladesh from the list following the erstwhile government’s negotiation with USTR.
The official said the commerce ministry requested the home ministry and the cultural affairs ministry to investigate the allegation. Following the request, National Security Intelligence (NSI) carried out an investigation and found that two companies mainly owned by Pakistani entrepreneurs in fact did set up optical disk plants in the country. The companies are AKA World Com situated at 189/B Tejgaon, which is owned by a Pakistani citizen Solaiman Azami, and Sonic Enterprise Bangladesh Limited at Konabari of Gazipur, also owned by a Pakistani citizen Sayed Ashraf Ali. The NSI investigation found that the first company set up a Tk 2 crore worth plant which can produce 50,000 discs a day.
When asked, a joint secretary to the commerce ministry said the ministry decided to initiate lobbying with the US government in an attempt to keep Bangladesh off the ‘watch list’ for copyright violations. The decision was taken in a meeting held at the commerce ministry with additional secretary of the ministry, Golam Mustakim, in the chair on August 26. He said the ministry decided to start discussions with the US government through its embassy in Washington to make its counterpart understand that as a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) the country is exempt from any kind of IPR obligation until 2013.
