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Meeting between UNCTAD and the new President of the PROCOMPETENCIA of the Dominican Republic

27 May 2013

UNCTAD and the newly appointed President of the PROCOMPETENCIA of the Dominican Republic, Mrs. Michelle Cohen, met to discuss the strengthening of the relationship between the two organisations.

On the margins of the Third Consumer Protection International Forum, held in Santo Domingo, 24 May 2013, UNCTAD met with the newly appointed President of the Board of PROCOMPETENCIA, Mrs. Michelle Cohen.

The meeting was organized by the Executive Director of PROCONSUMIDOR, Mrs. Altagracia Paulino and the Vice-Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mrs. Anina Del Castillo.

The objective of the meeting was to present the COMPAL Programme to PROCOMPETENCIA, taking into account the work that has been carried out with Dominican Republic since 2009 and the ways Procompetencia can benefit from almost 10 years of COMPAL experience in Latin America.

Some of the topics addressed were:

  1. Common agenda PROCONSUMIDOR-PROCOMPETENCIA where COMPAL can facilitate dialogue, whilst taking into account the integral approach competition-consumer protection of the programme.

  2. Attendance to the IGE on Competition Law and Policy (8-12 July 2013) of PROCOMPETENCIA.

  3. Need to work together on competition advocacy with private sector.

Mrs. Cohen indicated the need to appoint the executive director of PROCOMPETENCIA before the agency can actually enforce the law and launch investigations. However, in the meantime, COMPAL could provide assistance in terms of designing a competition advocacy strategy to outreach and raise awareness of the benefits of competition to private sector.

The meeting was finalized with the need to establish a mechanism to coordinate further actions between PROCOMPETENCIA and UNCTAD and work towards the signature of a MOU between these institutions. The COMPAL team in Geneva will follow-up on this particular point.

From right to left: Anina Del Castillo, Vice-Minister; Altagracia Paulino, Director PROCONSUMIDOR; Pierre Horna, COMPAL-UNCTAD and Michelle Cohen,President PROCOMPETENCIA