From left to right: Carlos Moreno, Pierre Horna, Jaime Coghi, Hassan Qaqaya, Carlos Robelo, José Ponce, Byron Larios, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Luzius Wasescha, Ana Maria Alvarez, Darius Kurek, Daniel Avila;and Elmer Schialer
On 17 March 2009, the Secretary General of UNCTAD, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi and the Swiss Ambassador Wasescha signed the Trust Fund Agreement UNCTAD-SECO which officially launched the COMPAL II Programme.
The Secretary General recognized the fruitful cooperation between UNCTAD and the Swiss Government in support of Latin American countries' efforts in putting the place Competition Law and Consumer Policies' programmes. He also announced that this cooperation has been extended to Colombia within the framework of the COMPAL. Dominican Republic has also received financial support from Spain. He added that a similar platform is being initiated by UNCTAD for African countries. Ghana will be the first country to benefit from the generous funding by the Swiss Government. Consequently, several donors including Sweden, Norway, France and Germany have joined the Swiss initiative and made voluntary contributions to a similar programme in Africa.
The SG reported that an independent evaluation of the Programme both by an external auditor and the beneficiary countries commended the achievements of COMPAL I and recommended the extension of the assistance, and as a result, a decision by Switzerland was made to establish an enlarged COMPAL II in October 2008.
Further, he said that COMPAL II will build on the successes achieved during the last four years of COMPAL I and deepen the technical assistance provided under the Programme to achieve the progress and address the complex challenges the beneficiary countries face as they develop and integrate regionally.
The UNCTAD SG mentioned few achievements of COMPAL:
- Tailor-made advice to beneficiary governments on the formulation and implementation of competition and consumer protection laws and policies those are suitable to the circumstances of the member countries.
- Enhancement of voluntary compliance with competition law and policy through promotion of advocacy activities geared towards business community, state enterprises, government departments, regulators, others stakeholders.
- Results of sectoral studies which demonstrated substantial benefits to the consumers, particularly among the poor, as a result of the adoption and the enforcement of the competition laws as well as the reduction of the costs of doing business in these countries and thereby promoting small and medium size enterprises.
- Regional cooperation including trade integration has benefited from the introduction of competition and consumer protection policies as a complement to trade and investment policies within the region.
Finally, the Secretary General expressed that he is encouraged by the constructive engagement and the valuable support which the Swiss Government is providing to UNCTAD's technical assistance programme. This support has acted as a catalyst for mobilizing additional resources from other donor countries allowing UNCTAD to deliver its mandate as provided in the Accra Accord.
Participants:
- Secretary General of UNCTAD, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi.
- Ambassador Luzius Wasescha & Darius Kurek, Counselor. Trade and Development (Switzerland).
- Ambassador Byron Fernando Larios López (El Salvador).
- Ambassador Carlos Robelo (Nicaragua).
- Ambassador José Eduardo Ponce Vivanco & Elmer Schialer. Deputy Permanent Representative (Peru).
- Mr. Daniel Avila Camacho, Counselor (Colombia).
- Mr. Jaime Coghi, Counselor (Costa Rica).
- Mr. Hassan Qaqaya, Acting Head of the Competition and Consumer Policies Branch of UNCTAD.
- Mrs. Ana Maria Alvarez, COMPAL Programme Manager.
- Mr. Pierre M. Horna, COMPAL Programme Officer.
- Mr. Carlos Moreno, UNCTAD Legal Adviser.
See further information at UNCTAD website:
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Meeting.asp?intItemID=2068&lang=1&m=17129&year=2009&month=3
See the statement of the Nicaraguan Ambassador Carlos Robelo on behalf of the COMPAL beneficiary countries.