On July 28, the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum hosted the session entitled "Combating anticompetitive practices of large transnational corporations, suppressing cross-border cartels and international cooperation" and organized jointly by the FAS Russia and the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre. The meeting was moderated by Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Centre.
Economic globalization has led to an increase in restrictive business practices by large transnational corporations, which have adverse effects on international trade, especially trade of developing economies and their growth potential. African countries, whose markets are now becoming the most important in terms of sales and production, are also significantly affected.
FAS Russia maintains cooperation with regulators of African countries, exchanges experience and best practices in order to develop the most effective solutions. In recent years, cooperation between Russian and African antimonopoly authorities has been actively pursued both bilaterally and multilaterally, including on the platforms of international organizations. An important aspect of cooperation is interaction in considering anti-competitive practices of large transnational corporations and global economic concentration transactions.
During the session, participants were invited to assess the current state and prospects of Russian-African cooperation in the field of antimonopoly regulation, as well as to consider the potential of such cooperation to improve the efficiency of antimonopoly authorities in Russia and Africa.
Moderator:
- Alexey Ivanov, Director of the International BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre, Director of the HSE – Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development.
Speakers:
- Maxim Shaskolsky, Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia;
- Teresa Moreira, Head of the Competition and Consumer Policies Branch at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (video);
- Mahmoud Momtaz, Chairman of the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA);
- Amadou Ceesay, Chief Executive of the Gambia Commission for Competition and Consumer Protection;
- Mohamed Mnasser, Second Vice President of the the Tunisian Competition Council;
- Vissia Bouranga, President of the National Competition Council of the Ministry of Commerce of the Republic of Chad;
- Hardin Ratshisusu, Deputy Commissioner of the Competition Commission of South Africa.
The Economic and Humanitarian Forum, which was held as part of the Second Russia–Africa Summit, is a unique event in Russian-African relations. The Forum is set to diversify the scope and nature of Russian-African cooperation, in turn setting the course of its long-term development. Public discussions taking place as part of the event’s business programme dealt with the most pressing issues on the Russian-African agenda. Taking into account the full extent of cooperation between Russia and the African nations, which extends beyond economic activity, a decision was taken to expand the 2023 edition of the Forum with a significant humanitarian element.