OREANDA-NEWS. October 26, 2011. The 35th – jubilee - session of the Interstate Council for Antimonopoly Policy took place in Alma-Aty (the Republic of Kazakhstan) as part of celebrating 20-year Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan and formation of the antimonopoly authority of Kazakhstan, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

ICAP session was attended by representatives of the antimonopoly bodies of the CIS states, members of “Promoting Competition” Non-Commercial Partnership in the CIS Countries”, representatives of academic and business circles.

The agenda of 35th ICAP session included several items on important areas of activities of the antimonopoly bodies in CIS; in particular, reforming electric power industry in the CIS member-states and the role of the antimonopoly bodies in this process; interaction between the Central Office and regional offices of the antimonopoly bodies in enforcement; shaping approaches to developing fair customs at the industry level in order to suppress unfair competition; the state of competition on the market of paid educational services and others.

Traditionally, the key item of the agenda of the ICAP session was the results of the work of the Headquarters for Joint Investigation of Violations of the Antimonopoly Law in the CIS Member-States, the 19th session of which took place the day before in Alma-Aty.

ICAP approved the results of the work of the Headquarters in the main areas of its activities, particularly in the field of air transportation, telecommunications and retail.

In particular, the Headquarters presented a draft report on the state of competition the markets of services for sales of food products in retail trade networks. The report was based on the findings of a research completed by the Headquarters.

Upon discussion, ICAP instructed the Headquarters to finalize the report within a month, upon which the report would be submitted to CIS Executive Committee for consideration according to the established procedures. In 2008 and 2010 reports based on the analysis of the markets of passenger air transportation and telecommunications, completed by the Headquarters, successfully passed all stages of consideration at CIS Executive Committee and were submitted for consideration of CIS Economic Council and the Council of the Heads of CIS Government.

Also the ICAP session, governed by the Council Regulation (in the edition approved by a decision of 34th ICAP session on 15-16 June 2011, Dushanbe) re-elected ICAP Chairman and determined the two co-Chairmen. In 2006 -2011, ICAP Chairman was the Head of FAS Russia, Igor Artemyev.

Upon presentation by Igor Artemyev, the Chairman of Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Protection of Competition, Mazhit Yessinbayev, was unanimously elected the ICAP Chairman for the next two years.

ICAP appointed the two co-Chairmen: Igor Artemyev and the Head of the State Service for Antimonopoly Policy and Consumer Rights at the Ministry of Economic Development of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Zakhid Isaev.

Following a proposal of Azerbaijan, the next, 36th ICAP session will be held at the beginning of June 2012 in Baku to coincide with 20-year anniversary of the antimonopoly authority of the Republic of Azerbaijan.