OREANDA-NEWS. July 21, 2014. The programme of the 14th session of Inter-Governmental Group of experts on competition law and policy UNCTAD (UN Conference on Trade and Development) in Geneva (Switzerland) included a Round Table on communications strategies as one of the means to enhance efficiency of competition authorities.

Representatives of the USA, Russia, Brazil, Spain, Columbia, Tunisia, Egypt, the Seychelles and other countries took part in the discussion. The Federal Antimonopoly Service at the Round Table was represented by Deputy Head of FAS Russia, Anatoly Golomolzin.

For instance, Anatoly Golomolzin pointed out that FAS enforces different communications strategies, three of which he outlined in details. First of all, Deputy Head of FAS elaborated on FAS system of public evaluation of the efforts of the antimonopoly authority: “An independent company conduct polls annually, including telephone surveys, to evaluate competence of officers of the antimonopoly authority, promptness, information availability, etc.” Transparency of FAS activities, openness of the dialogue with business-community, work of community liaison offices and Expert Councils are evaluated by Corporate Counsels Association.

Anatoly Golomolzin further discussed performance of FAS Expert Councils, comprising representatives of all interested structures and civil society. Currently FAS has 27 Expert Councils that consider FAS initiatives on amending the law, developing markets and devise and improve the “rules of the game” on the relevant markets.

Expert Councils meet on a regular basis. For instance, three Expert Councils - on oil, gas and financial markets – met on 14th July to discuss development of exchange trading with liquefied petroleum gases.

In conclusion, Anatoly Golomolzin talked about competition advocacy in mass media.

“FAS undertakes ongoing work with TV, radio and print mass media. All news about FAS activities are promptly published at the web-site of the Antimonopoly Service”, pointed out Deputy Head of FAS. “For instance, by the time of my presentation the web-site already displayed information about the meeting of the Inter-Government Expert Group.

FAS also publishes the “Russian Competition Law and Economics” e-journal, which is one of the most sought-after periodicals among similar publications on economics and law”.

UNCTAD Secretariat asked the Russian delegation to prepare a presentation on the work of FAS Centre for Education and Methodics. The presentation was prepared and published at UNCTAD official web-site.