OREANDA-NEWS. May 07, 2014. Representatives of the competition authorities of BRICS countries had a meeting in Marrakech (Morocco) at the 13th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) (1)

The parties discussed the prospects of signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the competition authorities of those countries, and the areas of work of the BRICS Working Group on cooperation in the field of competition enforcement (2). Notably, the parties discussed possibility to organize a session of the Working Group in September 2014 in St Petersburg at “Competition Day in Russia” annual international event.

The parties also discussed further steps towards developing cooperation between competition authorities under BRICS format, especially, the issues of organizing the 4th BRICS International Competition Conference that will take place in South Africa in 2015.

1. BRICS – an informal international association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and (from December 2010) South Africa. BRICS members are characterized as the most rapidly developing large countries. The advantageous position of these countries is achieved due to considerable resources important to the global economy. BRICS was formed upon a Russian initiative.

Meetings of BRICS ministers take place annually since September 2006, annual Summits of the heads of BRICS countries – since 2009.

2. Creating the Working Group was approved by the Heads of the competition authorities of BRICS countries at 2nd BRICS Conference on 21st September 2011 in Beijing.