Driven by the shared objectives to support sustainable economic development, uphold the principles of fair competition, and foster a transparent and balanced commercial environment within the Iraqi market, the American University of Iraq-Baghdad (AUIB) and the Iraqi Competition and Antitrust Council, the governmental regulatory authority affiliated with the Prime Minister’s Office, signed a memorandum that lays the framework of the two parties’ cooperation in training, the exchange of expertise, and scientific research, “in a manner that serves the public interest and contributes to the development of legal and economic knowledge pertaining to competition and antitrust.”
The memorandum of cooperation was inked during a visit by an AUIB delegation, headed by university President Dr. Bradley Cook and including members of the university’s academic and administrative cadre, to the headquarters of the Iraqi Competition and Antitrust Council, where the delegation was received by the Council’s President, Dr. Eng. Ahmed Younis Qassim, and senior figures at the Council.
Cooperation between AUIB and the Iraqi Competition and Antitrust Council began when the latter invited a joint student team from the Colleges of Law and Business to participate in the “Arab Youth Competition”. The Council co-organized this competition with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), and the University’s team won first place, notes the Dean of AUIB’s College of Law, Dr. Khansaa Mohammed Jassim. She explained that the cooperation between the University and the Council took off from there, leading the Council to train new students from the College of Law at its premises for one week, across all its directorates, and providing them with certificates of completion. Furthermore, the Council offered advanced students from the College the opportunity to work as trainees during the summer.
“Collaboration between the two parties was crowned with this cooperation memorandum, and the College of Law was invited to participate in the International Competition Conference, held this month in Baghdad, where I will be a member of the conference’s scientific committee and where a research group from the College of Law students will participate,” announced Dr. Khansaa. In the same context, she expressed her pride in being appointed as an advisor to the Iraqi Competition and Antitrust Council on matters related to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), clarifying that UNCTAD’s mandate encompasses all matters related to investment, competition, and anti-monopoly affairs.