Your Excellency Mr. Abdullatif Sener, Acting Prime Minister of Turkey;
Mr. Mustafa Parlak, distinguished President of the Turkish Competition Authority;
Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am honoured and pleased to welcome all of you to the Fifth United Nations Conference to Review All Aspects of the Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices. A quarter of a century after its unanimous adoption by the General Assembly in its resolution 35/63 of 5 December 1980 -- with all the legitimacy and authority that this implies -- the Set of Principles and Rules remains the sole fully multilateral and universally applicable instrument dealing with the area of competition law and policy. Since adoption of the Set, Review Conferences have been held every five years. But for the first time ever, a Review Conference is being held outside Geneva, in this charming seaside town of Antalya. I am sure you will all join with me in expressing deep appreciation to the Government of Turkey for their generosity in hosting this Conference and for the warm hospitality they have extended us.

A more suitable theme for the Conference´s deliberations could be "Building New Bridges". That is:

• building new bridges among competition policy, trade liberalization and development;
  
• building new bridges among national efforts to adopt and implement competition legislation, bilateral and regional cooperation in this area, and multilateral cooperation within the framework of the Set of Principles and Rules; and
  
• building new bridges among the actors and stakeholders in this area, including Governments, relevant international bodies, corporate entities and civil society.

Let me explain why I consider the subject matter of this Conference to be so important. It is generally recognized that competition law and policy benefits consumer welfare, efficiency, the promotion of market opportunities, economic growth and development. Furthermore, in a context of globalization, as recognized by the Eleventh UNCTAD Conference at Saõ Paulo last year, competition policy plays a role in promoting competitiveness, building entrepreneurship, facilitating market access and entry, enhancing the equity of the international trading system and ensuring that trade liberalization brings about development gains. Conversely, international agreements and national laws should be tailored to the needs, interests and capacities of the parties to these agreements, and are likely to be effectively implemented only insofar as this is the case. Gaps in content or participation in the network of international cooperation in this area can weaken the entire structure of cooperation. The reason for suggesting the theme of Building New Bridges is based on current trends and issues in the competition law and policy area - as described in the review and assessment of the implementation of the Set:

1. In national and international markets, anti-competitive practices -- including cartels, unjustified vertical restraints, abuses of dominance and anti-competitive mergers -- continue to be engaged in across a varied range of industries. These include agricultural inputs, commodities, food and beverages, fuel, construction, pharmaceuticals, retailing, financial services, shipping, computer software and telecommunications. These practices have implications for trade and development. It has been estimated, for example, that developing economies paid between $12.5 billion and $25 billion more than they should have done throughout the 1990s for just 12 products that were the subject of international cartels prosecuted by a few major jurisdictions. And this is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.
   
2. In order to better control such practices, developed countries have adapted their enforcement policies and refined their investigative techniques. At the same time, many developing and other countries have adopted, reformed or strengthened the implementation of their competition laws and policies - often within the context of market-oriented economic reforms. Thus, despite important differences between countries in this area, particularly in terms of enforcement capabilities, the long-standing trend towards convergence in the content or application of competition laws continues.
   
3. The numbers of bilateral and regional agreements with competition policy provisions has increased substantially. More than 100 of the 300 or so regional trade agreements now in force or under negotiation have competition-policy related provisions. In parallel, international cooperation in the competition policy area continues to strengthen.

Despite the important progress that has been made, there is a stronger need than ever for further efforts at the national and international levels, for two fundamental reasons:

First, because most countries are behind the state of the art in this area, whether in terms of adoption or reform of competition laws or their effective enforcement, including in cases with international elements.

Second, because competition-related provisions of international agreements have often not been fully implemented so far. Even when they have been implemented, it is an open question as to how far such provisions would fully suffice to deal with all problems arising in this area, particularly problems faced by weaker or more inexperienced players.

Your Excellency,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

UNCTAD can provide a crucial contribution to efforts to move forward in this area, because of the unique role it plays in two respects:

1. Pursuant to its mandate under the Set, UNCTAD is the sole universal organization working in the competition policy area. It does so through a blend of analytical work, capacity-building activities and consensus-building within an intergovernmental framework open to all UN Member States.
   
2. More broadly, UNCTAD focuses on the interface between trade and development and on strengthening the development partnership. The aim is to ensure that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable development.

UNCTAD´s work reflects the interrelationship and complementarity between national action on competition law and policy and international cooperation in this area. This is in line with the approach followed by the Set of Principles and Rules. The Set provides that "appropriate action should be taken in a mutually reinforcing manner at national, regional and international levels to eliminate or effectively deal with restrictive business practices, including those of transnational corporations, adversely affecting international trade, particularly that of developing countries and the economic development of these countries".

Over the past five years, UNCTAD has fulfilled its role in line with the broad orientations laid down by the Fourth Review Conference in 2000. In my view, these orientations continue to provide useful guidelines as to what the broad thrust should be of UNCTAD´s future activities in this area. Those activities should reflect the directives provided by the Saõ Paulo Consensus. The Consensus underlined that competition policies suited to the development needs, national policy objectives and capacity constraints of developing countries are important in safeguarding against anti-competitive behaviour in both domestic and international markets. It further stressed that efforts should be made to prevent and dismantle anti-competitive structures and practices and promote responsibility and accountability of corporate actors at both the national and international level. It requested UNCTAD to help ensure that anti-competitive practices do not impede or negate the realization of the benefits that should arise from liberalization in globalized markets, in particular for developing countries and LDCs. The Consensus also called for further analytical work and capacity-building activities to assist developing countries on issues related to competition law and policies, including at a regional level.

The Fifth Review Conference is expected to review the implementation of the Set of Principles and Rules, experiences with its application and proposals for its improvement and further development. It is also expected to establish the main directions of UNCTAD´s work on competition law and policy for the years ahead. In my view, this work might follow through on past or current work in a direction that strengthens the synergies between national and international action and sharpens the focus of its analytical work, capacity-building activities and intergovernmental deliberations to better address the evolving needs in this area. This might involve four key aspects:

1. monitoring trends and developments in this area at the national and international levels, including anti-competitive practices or concentrated market structures, as well as measures taken by Governments to address these;
   
2. assisting developing countries in their efforts to tailor their competition laws and policies to their development needs and objectives, as well as their capacity constraints, and to implement them effectively;
   
3. facilitating stronger cooperation in this area, including by identifying how competition rules in bilateral and regional agreements might be further developed and might appropriately address developing countries´ needs and interests; and
   
4. strengthening the implementation of the Set.

All these aspects are of course interrelated. This is reflected in the work programme of this Conference and should in my view continue to be reflected in UNCTAD´s work in the years to come. Thus, the voluntary peer reviews of the competition laws and policies of Jamaica and Kenya being conducted here this week should provide valuable information on their development needs, policy objectives and capacity constraints; on how other countries have addressed similar problems; and on relevant experiences with international cooperation. I wish to express my appreciation to the Governments of Jamaica and Kenya for their willingness to engage in this demanding exercise.

The two subjects of competition policy and international cooperation, including regional agreements, and how to operationalize special and differential treatment for developing countries in competition law and policy, are interrelated and could be linked in UNCTAD´s future work with the identification of the needs and objectives of developing countries at the national level.

The question of how competition laws and policies can fight against exclusion and facilitate market entry by the informal sector, thus reducing marginalization and unemployment, and the focus of a business forum on the creation of a favourable environment for enterprises, might be appropriately linked with consumer welfare and protection issues and related to the realization of the MDGs and the Monterrey Consensus.

During this Conference, UNCTAD will be following up on the important work it has done to highlight the pernicious nature of hard-core cartels and how to combat them at both national and international levels.

Future work by UNCTAD might also address competition issues arising in specific sectors. One example is commodity sectors, given that the Saõ Paulo Consensus highlighted the issue of concentrated market structures in some commodity sectors at the national and international levels. Other sectors of interest might include the distribution sector, audiovisual industries and other new or dynamic sectors of particular interest to developing countries.

In addressing such questions, UNCTAD will of course continue its ongoing cooperation with many intergovernmental and civil society organizations.

I hope that my suggestions will be of assistance to you in shouldering your heavy burdens and responsibilities during the five days of this Review Conference. I wish you every success in your endeavours and once again express our sincere gratitude to the Turkish Government for hosting this important event.

Thank you.