Remarks by Mr Edwin Tong SC, Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs, at the MoU Signing between WIPO AND VICPA

Mr Daren Tang Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Mr James Tan President, Visual, Audio, Creative Content Professionals Association of Singapore

Mediators and Creatives in the room

1. Thank you very much for being here. It’s a really important occasion for me, speaking personally, because today we are at an occasion which brings me to an intersection of two of my most important interests, as I spend my time in Government.

2. The first, of course, is in the role of WIPO and mediation – the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (AMC), in particular.

3. Mediation is something that has been around for ages – it is a tale as old as time. In the old days, the villagers, the village chiefs, the chief clansmen, the heads of the villages were all involved in mediation. All of us, in some form or another, experienced it in our childhood as we fought with a classmate or a schoolmate – “is it my football or your football”, and so on.

4. All of these were mediation-driven, resolving disputes between people, but most importantly, preserving the goodwill and the relations between the two parties who might have a dispute. And that is increasingly important, not just in the space that you occupy, but across the board, whether it’s in commercial disputes, large-scale construction contracts, multi-party, multi-jurisdiction disputes and so on. All of these will benefit from mediation, because it saves time, saves money, and, most importantly, preserves the relations.

5. In the context of all you creators, especially as freelancers, that is probably the number one consideration. As freelancers – which is my second area of interest – you bring about a verve and a vibe in artistic and creative content production, because you work with different people differently.

6. You work with filmmakers, you work with the sound engineers, you work with people on stage, off stage, production, and so on. There is a whole range of people you work with, deliberately so, and for each production, it is going to be with different personnel.

7. Now, can you imagine, if you end up in a dispute with one or two of them, you end up in court – after a while, it is going to be very hard for freelancers to operate as freelancers. This concept of mediation, especially in the context of freelancers, is all the more important, all the more useful.

8. It allows you to, as James says, thrive. Let’s face it – when you enter into a multi-party arrangement or agreement, from time to time, you will have a disagreement. It is not about manners, it is not “I don’t like the person across from you”, but, “I want my rights”. And there is nothing wrong with asserting those rights, but can we do it in a way which allows us to still say we are friends, if not partners?

9. And freelancers work on that basis.

10. I am very grateful that we are here today to do this. We do believe that the work and the role of IP through the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and WIPO is increasingly going to be important for the smaller content creators, smaller SMEs, because it allows you to level up.

11. The programme that Daren mentioned, the Creators Learn Intellectual Property (CLIP) programme, is something I learned a bit about during my time with Daren in Geneva. I think it is going to be very useful, and I think it will be a game changer. In addition to the music creators, it is also going to be open to the visual arts shortly.

12. It is going to be a platform that we are using to drive [usage of programmes]– WIPO has got programmes, IPOS has got programmes, but we are largely in the space of IP because we believe that this will help you to level up.

13. I have one last point about creatives. I mentioned that it is close to my heart, because I spent five years at MCCY working to ensure that creators, the arts community, whether it is in audiovisual, stage – that you have a place in Singapore.

14. Increasingly, as we progress as a nation – this year being SG60 – I believe it is going to be really important, because all of you develop content, produce art that speaks to us as a person, person in the plural sense. Us, as fellow Singaporeans, having a shared history and heritage, and a common identity, I think that is really important. As we progress, I know the economy is important, jobs are important, GDP is important, but the heart of Singapore, which all of you speak to, is equally important. And I think there must be a role for this.

15. So over the years we have seen coming on-stream the University of the Arts Singapore (UAS), which is important. MCCY, I think, will carry on the work of ensuring that it is not just about having a University, but having an entire value chain, an entire arts economy. That is important.

16. I think we all realise that it is important to ensure that, unlike the days when Daren – by the way, Daren is a multi-talented pianist and multi-talented football player – but we will have to ensure that a prodigious talent like Daren, as the pianist he was then, will not have to choose, and if you have to choose, the choices will not be as stark as what it used to be. We need to ensure that, not just through education, but to ensure that there is an arts economy in that value chain.

17. That is why, after a while, passion can be a profession – but that is what we want to work towards, and I think that is really important.

18. We are here, at the confluence of all these different strands of different developments, which I believe is really important, very meaningful, and I am so glad to be here.

19. I have two other points.

20. One, today is the first time I’m doing something in my role as advisor to VICPA, and I am so glad to be able to do this here and to work with all of you. We will continue to work with you to ensure that there is a space for visual, audio, created content. I want to see you produce content not just in Singapore, but push the boundaries and represent Singapore on the world stage. There is no reason why we cannot do it. Our artistes here in Singapore are as good as any in the world, and we must believe that, and we must support that.

21. The last point I will make is I want to thank Daren and his team.

22. WIPO AMC, as you heard Daren say earlier, is in Singapore. It is the only office outside of Geneva. It is in Singapore, here at Maxwell chambers. But to show how prescient and long-visioned WIPO is, this office started in 2010 – 15 years ago. WIPO AMC was here, one of the first. The concept of mediation, trying to bring people together to resolve IP disputes, is not new. In fact, as I said, it is age old, but WIPO was one of the first movers. And we thank them very much for having confidence in Singapore, locating in Singapore, and also now operating out of Singapore, because all of this serves our needs and serves the resolution of conflicts, which helps us to drive the arts economy much further.

23. On that note, thank you very much for listening to me. I wish all of you a very pleasant day ahead and I look forward to the signing ceremony shortly.

24. Thank you.

Last updated on 22 October 2025