On Behalf of the Hungarian Delegation, I would like to express our satisfaction that this General Assembly has been able to appoint unanimously Mr. Kamil Idris as the new Director General of WIPO. We congratulate him on his election wholeheartedly. I wish to take this opportunity to wish success to Mr. Idris in leading this Organization to new achievements and at the same time I offer our readiness to continue cooperating with him also in his new function.
The election of Mr. Idris to the post of Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization is a welcome event. In the person of Mr. Idris we have not only elected a competent manager and recognized specialist, but due to the fact that he is a son of Africa, his election has become a symbol for the enormous progress of the whole African continent. We are convinced that the election of Mr. Idris will be a contributing factor to the further development of the world intellectual property institutions which play, especially now in our technology driven era, a decisive role in the life of developing, developed and transition economies alike.
One of the reasons why we are confident that the Director General elect will carry out his functions with success is the fact that the state of affairs in this Organization is excellent. I think we can state that WIPO has become the symbol of sound management and efficiency in the family of United Nations Organizations. The serious financial and managerial problems which so frequently hamper the efficient functioning of organizations are practically unknown in WIPO. We all know that the major contributor to the achievements of this Organization has been its present Director General Mr. Arpad Bogsch who has been 24 years at the helm of WIPO. Although this is not the time for farewell speeches as Mr. Bogsch remains the Director General until the end of November, in the context of the election of Mr. Idris, it is appropriate to express our thanks at the last meeting of the WIPO General Assembly to Mr. Bogsch for all he has done during his unprecedented career at WIPO. I am sure many of you share my view that without his firm and efficient leadership and commitment to the protection of intellectual property on a world-wide-basis, the World Intellectual Property Organization would not be the same.
The career of Mr. Bogsch has been an extraordinary one. In recognition of his outstanding professional and managerial qualities and the integrity of his personality he has been elected five times as Director General of this Organization. We Hungarians are particularly proud that Mr. Bogsch is a native son of Hungary. It is well-known that after he was already a young lawyer, he had to leave Hungary due to well-known political reasons, in order to live in freedom and find creative working conditions.
At the end of the 1950s, after several years of study and work in Paris and in Washington, Mr. Bogsch became a citizen of the United States of America. In 1963, he started to work in BIRPI, the predecessor of WIPO. As we know he has had a beautiful international career in the service of the whole international community. I think in this context is totally appropriate to quote Socrates, the Athenian philosopher who said "I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world".
Mr. Director General, Dear Arpad, thank you again for your work, for your contributions to WIPO´s great achievements. I wish you the successful continuation and finishing your term as Director General. I am sure that if one day the history of this Organization is written, readers will understand the meaning of the saying "there is probably no history; only biography".
Dear Mr. Kamil Idris, we are convinced that you have the determination and
the qualities which are needed to make the World Intellectual Property
Organization, with the support of all delegations, ready to meet the
challenges of the next century. We wish you all the best in your new
function.
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