OREANDA-NEWS. May 07, 2010. The opening ceremony of the 9th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) took place in Istanbul, Turkey. The FAS Russia's delegation at the conference is led by Stats-Secretary Andrey Tsarikovskiy, Deputy Head of FAS Russia, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.          

At the opening ceremony ICN summarized the results of all Working Groups in the past year. In particular, ICN acknowledged the achievements of FAS Russia in the Competition Advocacy Working Group, co-chaired by FAS Russia and the U.K. Office of Fair Trading.

The ICN Vice-President on Advocacy, Mr. Kazuhiko Takeshima, also emphasized active efforts of FAS Russia on technical assistance to competition agencies in a number of countries. Presently FAS Russia is providing technical assistance to competition authority of Mongolia on improving its national competition law. Also the ICN Steering Group approved support provided by FAS Russia's experts to the competition authorities of Kazakhstan, Kirgizia and Moldova.

According to Lesya Davydova, the Head of the FAS Russia's Department for International Economic Cooperation: "Currently FAS Russia is the only competition authority - an ICN member that is implementing so many technical support projects. This fact undoubtedly promotes FAS Russia's status as an active member of the ICN Steering Group".

Vladimir Kachalin, Assistant to the Head of FAS Russia, spoke on the issue at the section focused on planning the ICN's second decade.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy took part in the section where the heads of competition authorities discussed problems related to agency effectiveness.

Reference:
International Competition Network (ICN) is an association of government agencies from different countries focused exclusively on antimonopoly policy, competition law enforcement and development of efficient international cooperation in this field.

Russian antimonopoly authority has been very active within ICN since it was formed in 2002, participating in its Working Groups, in particular, on competition advocacy, spreading ICN experience throughout the CIS, and using ICN best practices for improving Russian national competition law and enforcement practice.