Vadiyya Khalil, the Chairperson Competition Commission of Pakistan, will chair the seventeenth session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy being held by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on 11-13 July in Geneva (Switzerland). Each year, an Intergovernmental Group of Experts (IGE) on Competition Law and Policy meets to discuss ways of improving worldwide cooperation on competition policy implementation and enhancing convergence through dialogue. This is for the first time that Pakistan has been chosen to chair the high profile UNCTAD conference as a result of Pakistan’s commitment to effective competition law enforcement and the CCP’s involvement in UNCTAD’s activities under the leadership of Chairperson Khalil in this field.

In line with the agreed conclusions adopted by the Intergovernmental Group of Experts at its sixteenth session on 7 July 2017, the consultations at the seventeenth session will focus on: Capacity-building activities and technical assistance implemented; Challenges faced by developing countries in competition and regulation in the maritime transport sector; Competition issues in the sale of audio-visual rights for major sports events; Voluntary peer review of the competition law and policy of Botswana; Reports on the UNCTAD Discussion Group on International Cooperation and the UNCTAD Repository of Best Practice Tools.

In this Seventeenth Session, the IGE on Competition Law and Policy is expected to adopt the Agreed Conclusions and to decide on its work programme until its next session.

The United Nations Set of Principles on Competition provides the basis for intergovernmental consultations. The Intergovernmental Group of Experts (IGE) on Competition Law and Policy is a standing body established under the United Nations Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices (UN Set) to monitor the application and implementation of the Set. The UN Set is a multilateral agreement on competition policy, which was negotiated and adopted by General Assembly resolution 35/63 on 5 December 1980.