A global programme to support competition and consumer protection policies was launched in Lima, Peru on 5 May at the headquarters of Peru’s Competition Authority, INDECOPI.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi, together with the Swiss Ambassador in Peru, Hans-Ruedi Bortis, inaugurated GLOBAL COMPAL before more than 200 INDECOPI staff members who have been involved in implementing COMPAL Latin America for Peru since 2003, when the programme was founded.
UNCTAD has long-standing experience in providing technical assistance and capacity building for competition and consumer protection policies and laws worldwide. Its most successful programme in this area is COMPAL (Competencia y Protección del Consumidor en America Latina - Competition and Consumer Protection for Latin America).
Dr. Kituyi said Peru's role as a regional leader had helped to increase the impact of COMPAL. "I would like to pay tribute to the Peruvian government and in particular to Dr. Hebert Tassano, President of INDECOPI, for his leadership and commitment to COMPAL," Dr. Kituyi said.
COMPAL began with five member countries in 2003 and now counts eight others, who joined through the programme's regional component, which aims to enhance regional cooperation. In addition, COMPAL has established important partnerships with Chile, Brazil and Mexico.
The programme's approach has been "exported" to the West African Economic Monetary Union, and UNCTAD recently adopted it as the organization's general strategy for technical cooperation on competition and consumer protection worldwide.
GLOBAL COMPAL will be open to a large number of United Nations member States, including in South-East Asia, the Balkans and Southern and Western African sub-regions. It follows a recently created regional COMPAL GLOBAL programme for countries in the Middle East and North Africa, which was launched in Marrakesh on 23 April 2014.
Dr. Kituyi's presence marked the first time a high-level UNCTAD representative has visited INDECOPI headquarters in Lima, Peru. Dr. Kituyi welcomed Escuela de Competencia y de Protección al Consumidor (the School for Competition and Consumer Protection) established by Peru, which he said would serve as a platform for south-south cooperation and exchange of best practices. He also highlighted Peru's chairmanship of the Latin American Centre of Competition, and its hosting of the COMPAL Annual Conference in June 2012, the OECD Latin American Competition Forum and the Ibero-American Competition Forum in September 2013.
 From left to right: Minister Milagros Castañon (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru), Ambassador Guillermo Valles (Director of DITC, UNCTAD), H.E. Hans-Ruedi Bortis (Swiss Ambassador in Peru), Dr. Hebert Tassano (President of INDECOPI); Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi (Secretary General of UNCTAD), Mr. Juan Luis Crucelegui (Deputy Head of Competition and Consumer Policies Branch of UNCTAD), Mr. Santiago Davila (General Manager of INDECOPI), and Mr. Pierre Horna (Officer-in-charge of COMPAL Programme of UNCTAD) |
