Strengthening the Dialogue on Competition

Professor Jenny pointed out the tremendous impact of COVID on the region and around the world on the economies of the region and noted, that developing sound competition regimes and regional integration will be key to the overall recovery.

He continued by introducing the OECD, UNESCWA, and UNCTAD 2018 joint initiative to support reform and help countries in MENA strengthen their competition regimes.

Finally, Mr. Ferrandi, Competition Expert from the OECD, introduced ESCWA’s joint activity with the OECD-GVH on translating Competition Concepts videos into Arabic to increase the knowledge and spread awareness on the topic across the region.

• Miss Khaled, Economic Affairs Officer at ESCWA, shared the activities completed during the year, such as the Technical Paper on Trade and Competition, the launch of the Arab Legislation Portal (ALP), and the publication of the Arab Business Legislative Framework (ABLF). She continued by reporting the planned activities for 2022, which include the publication of a Technical Paper on trade and competition reforms and a case study for Kuwait.
• Miss Moreira, continued by reporting UNCTAD activities. Finally, Mr. Kechida, Competition Expert from the OECD, shared that the organization will focus on Tunisia, with a competition assessment and peer review.

Miss Nathalie Khaled reported on the

Joint activities completed in 2021, including the Joint Competition Forum, hosted virtually by Egypt the 23-24 March 2021, and the Webinar on Competitive Neutrality on the 24 November 2021. Miss Lynn Robertson, continued by announcing the OECD initiative on translating key OECD documents into Arabic.

Miss Khaled continued by outlining the planned activities for 2022, which include the Joint Competition Forum hosted virtually by Oman 24-25 May 2021, the Arab Competition Dialogues webinars, the Online course on Fighting Bid Rigging in Public Procurement, and an E-Procurement project for strengthening the resilience of MSMEs.