Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) for Economic and Business Affairs Amy Holman traveled to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire April 15-17 to engage with the creative industries and to provide U.S. government support and identify barriers to growth within the intellectual property space for Côte d’Ivoire’s creative economy.

In Abidjan, PDAS Holman delivered a keynote address at a Creative Industries Ecosystem event, hosted in partnership with UNESCO, on the importance of intellectual property protection for the creative industries. She met with the Minister of Culture and the Ivoirian Bureau of Authors Rights (BURIDA), responsible for copyright in Côte d’Ivoire, to discuss the Ivoirian government’s efforts to grow the creative economy.  She also met with strategic partners focused on the creative industries and intellectual property in Côte d’Ivoire, who identified needs within the creative sector such as enforcement of intellectual property rights, remuneration, and capacity building, and also offered solutions and identified areas for partnership with the U.S. Government.