Teresa Moreira, Head of Competition and Consumer Policies Branch, UNCTAD

I am very pleased to be here, at the first İstanbul Competition Forum, organized by the Turkish Competition Authority, in collaboration with UNCTAD that I here represent.

We believe this is a very important initiative to promote regional cooperation in a more relaxed, informal framework that will surely foster mutual understanding and provide for shared learnings.

The Turkish Competition Authority has considerable experience, since it has been working for 22 years with highly qualified staff and very committed.

And so we are extremely pleased also to use the Turkish Competition Authority as an example to support young and less experienced competition authorities from developing countries.

I hope this will be the first of many more gatherings in the years to come and I hope I will have the opportunity to speak with you again.

Thank you.

 

Antonio Gomes, Acting Deputy Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, OECD

It is a great pleasure to be here in Istanbul for the very first Istanbul Competition Forum.

I would like to congratulate the Turkish Competition Authority for organizing such an important forum – a forum that will not only discuss very important issues such as digitalization, globalization, international cooperation and effective actions against cartels, but that will help bring together a lot of the countries of the region to promote regional cooperation.

And it is quite impressive that we have around 30 countries of the region attending this Forum.

So, really, my congratulations to the Turkish Competition Authority, and I am sure that this initiative will be a very, very big success for the future.
 

Valon Prestreshi President, Kosovo Competition Authority

The experience with the ICF is one of the greatest experiences I have ever had and based on this, even in the previous meetings that we had, we were able to reach an agreement together with the Turkish Competition Authority and the Kosovo Competition Authority where we invited the President in Kosovo to reach the memorandum.

I believe that this ICF Conference is well-organized and it is very good for other young competition authorities to exchange experiences with other countries and other institutions and competition authorities.

I believe that the organization went excellently; the hospitality was always great and is great.

Let us keep it up and hopefully in the near future you will continue with the ICF program

 

Ioannis Lianos President, Hellenic Competition Commission

I was invited to the İstanbul Competition Forum, which I think is an extraordinary initiative bringing together lawyers, economists, academics and officials to discuss recent developments in competition law and practice.

The topic of the Conference today was mostly on digital economy.

This is obviously a very hot topic.

Everyone is working on this, there are many reports published and I think that the discussion today brought to the fore some of the important issues and changes we need to do in competition law theory and practice.

I definitely think that fora like the Istanbul Competition Forum will be extremely important in order to promote the global discussion that is needed in this new globalized digital world.

Thank you very much again for the opportunity to present in your conference and the opportunity to discuss with the excellent people here.

Thank you.

 

Araz ALİYEV Deputy Head, Azerbaijan Competition Authority

ICF meeting is a beneficial preparation for international cooperation, learning latest experiences and practices and developing legal infrastructure.

This preparation has enabled experience sharing and research on common issues.

Participants can benefit from each other’s experience and put that into practice after returning to their countries.

And this international meeting helps developing competition laws.

Moreover, it provides opportunity for experts to combine their knowledge and apply it in their countries.

It provides a beneficial platform.

Arrangements related to international cooperation should be realized and as competition environment is also effected by globalization, this meeting has created positive effects on cooperation between countries.