OREANDA-NEWS. The 11th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) will take place on 17 - 20 April 2012 in Rio-de-Janeiro (Brasil), under the auspices of the Brazilian Competition Policy System (BCPS), comprising the Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE), the Secretariat of Economic Law (SDE/MJ), of the Ministry of Justice, and the Secretariat for Economic Monitoring of the Ministry of Finances (SEAE/MF) of the Federative Republic of Brazil, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The 11th Annual ICN Conference will focus on five significant areas for ICN: competition advocacy, efficiency of competition authorities, cartels, mergers and unilateral behaviour.

The delegation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), led by Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovsky, plans to take part in the Conference as members of the Steering Committee. The session of the Steering Committee will hear a report on the results of the group work in the past years and discuss immediate plans. FAS is also a co-chair of ICN Working Group on Advocacy, together with competition authorities of France and Portugal.
At the Conference FAS also plans to hold negotiations with several competition authorities of such countries as Spain, India, Mexico, Germany, France, the USA, Australia, Korea and Turkey regarding further development of cooperation in the field of competition policy, as well as hold negotiations with Brazil’s and Mexico’s experts on state procurement.

Following negotiations with competition authorities of Italy and Portugal, two documents on cooperation with European competition authorities will be signed: the Memorandum on Cooperation in the field of competition policy between FAS and Italy’s Competition Authority and the Memorandum of Understanding between FAS and Portugal’s Competition Authority.

FAS delegation also plans to have several top-level meetings with the heads of competition authorities of BRICS countries.

FAS delegation has also scheduled negotiations with the leadership of the Directorate General on Competition of the European Commission on the issues of developing competition on the markets of pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, air transportation, as well as car sale and after-sale services.

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One of ICN goals is improving enforcement of competition law and competition advocacy amongst competition community.

To reach this goal, 11 years ago ICN members formed and further on expanded active community of experts on competition across the world. ICN enables its members and non-governmental experts on competition to exchange experience based on their achievements and find common approaches to various competition issues in order to have favourable impact upon both competition and consumer welfare.

Annual ICN Conferences provide a unique opportunity for competition authorities and non-state advisors to join efforts and endeavour to reinforce achievements, as well as discuss global competition issues with foreign colleagues.