Competition can foster sustainable development - UNCTAD

Competition, law and policy experts gathered in Geneva recently to explore the manner in which competition policy, laws and authorities contribute to achieving sustainable and inclusive economic development. The meeting, held during the fourteenth session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy, also considered the coherence of competition policy with other public policies.

Competition policy works in tandem with other public policies and processes to enable a competitive business environment to develop.

Inclusive long-term economic growth and sustainable development is linked to the way in which all these policies inter-connect.

With this in mind, UNCTAD invited officials from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) to attend the meeting on competition policy and development.

The discussions centered on the relationship of competition policy with policies in areas such as innovation and intellectual property rights protection, competitive neutrality, good governance, trade liberalization and global value chains and international cooperation The experts looked in particular at how these contribute to inclusive and sustainable growth in developing countries.

Academics Eleanor M. Fox, Professor of Trade Regulation at the New York University School of Law and Alberto Heimler, Professor of Economics at the Italian School of Government, were among the participants who shared their views and commented on the panelists' presentations. A debate involving experts from all over the world followed the presentations.