Finalisation of COMPAL II activities in Costa Rica

As the March 2015 launch of COMPAL III is approaching, UNCTAD will complete all activities agreed in the last Annual Conference of COMPAL II together with the Project Coordinator of Costa Rica.

COMPAL II will be officially closed by March 2015, when the new phase of COMPAL is launched in Peru on 6 March 2015. Some outstanding activities in key Central American beneficiary countries should be implemented before March 2015. In this regard, the project coordinator of Costa Rica has agreed to undertake a number of activities in February 2015.

UNCTAD, together with GAE members, will be ensuring that the activities finalised under the national component of Costa Rica are sustainable and can be replicated in a regional perspective through the new regional Programme COMPAL III.

On 23 February 2015 in San Jose, Costa Rica, UNCTAD will officially close two key consumer activities for the DAC and presentation of outputs to relevant stakeholders: CR.2.2.1 Training workshop on Consumer Law to DAC case handlers; CR. 2.1.4 Dissemination event of the Complaints online system as per POA approved under POA 2012-2013

Overall, all COMPAL II activities should be successfully completed. In particular, UNCTAD will be focusing essentially on: • In Costa Rica, the consumer protection-related activities should be able to be completed and establish self-sustainability measures by the partner institutions.

UNCTAD expert: • Mr Pierre Horna, COMPAL Global Coordinator and Legal Affairs Officer of the Competition and Consumer Policies Branch

GAE Members: • Mr. Edgar Odio, Ex-Commisioner of the Costa Rican Competition Authority • Mr. Gustavo Valbuena, Ex-Head of the Colombian Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (SIC)

Participants: • Commission for the promotion of Competition (COPROCOM) • Directorate to support the consumer (DAC)