On March 10, Prof. Seyed Nourani, Chairman of the National Competition Council of Iran (NICC), delivered a lecture on "The Iranian Economy under Sanctions: The Role of Antitrust Policy" at the Higher School of Economics. The event was organized as part of the official visit of the NICC leadership at the invitation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia. The meeting was moderated by Alexey Ivanov, Director of the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.
Professor Seyyed Nourani addressed the problems of functioning of the Iranian economy under sanctions and about the history of competition policy in the country. He reviewed the activities of the Iranian Competition Center (ICC) as well as the main provisions of the Iranian antimonopoly law. In addition, the professor presented some of the most important cases in recent years with ICC decisions on them.
In 2017, FAS Russia and the National Competition Council of Iran reached agreements to exchange experiences. FAS declared its readiness to support Iran's younger competition authority in the development of antitrust and competition law in the country. Since then, the two sides have intensified their cooperation on competition policy issues and signed a Memorandum of Understanding, on March 9, 2023.
Seyed Nourani holds a PhD degree in Economics, with a focus on the Public Sector, Econometrics, and Theoretical Economics. He has also served as Head of the Theoretical Economics Department at Allameh Tabataba'i University (ATU); membership in the Research Council at the General Inspection Office of Iran; Economic Counsellor at the IKCO, the largest Iranian automobile company.