India unanimously elected vice president at UNCTAD conference
12 Nov 2010
The sixth UNCTAD conference, held during 8-12 November 2010 at Geneva, to review competition rules has unanimously elected India as vice president.
Currently, the United Nations "multilaterally agreed equitable principles and rules for the control of restrictive business practices', is the only multilateral instrument on competition policy.
It provides a set of equitable rules for the control of anti-competitive practices, recognises the development dimension of competition law and policy and provides a framework for international cooperation and exchange of best practices in this area, including the provision of technical assistance and capacity building for member countries.
The UN General Assembly had, in December 1980, unanimously adopted the 'set of multilaterally agreed equitable principles and rules for the control of restrictive business practices.' Since then, these are reviewed once every five years at such conferences, with the sixth review having taken place at the current confernece.
The special focus of discussion this time was 'the role of competition policy in promoting economic development, in these troubled times'.
"Competition is the essential characteristic of market economy, and is regarded as the fourth corner-stone of government economic framework, along with monetary, fiscal and trade policies, Dhanendra Kumar, chairman of the Competition Commission of India, stressed in his address.
He said competition affects the common man most during these times and, therefore, competition policies have to be reviewed and re-oriented to ensure the interest of the common man.
The conference has taken note of his views and included the focus on common man in the draft resolution circulated at the conference.
