A PROPOSAL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMPETITION POLICY FORUM IN THE ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION

In the Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries, the development of the market economy in terms of institutions and instruments is not yet mature. Turkey is among the most advanced Islamic countries in terms of both the market economy and democracy. Being a member of OECD and having long term relationships with the European Union has given Turkey a unique role model in the Islamic world. As a result of various workshops conducted by the OIC countries, Turkey is considered to be the most competitive economy and having a leading capacity to promote competition in the Islamic world. In this study, it is envisaged to draft an organizational and functional architecture for a competition policy forum among OIC countries (Figure 1). This policy forum can be comprehensive in the context of the leading economic sectors of each country. In this study, a proposal has been developed according to the results of field research and subsequent meeting on competition law and policy for the OIC countries conducted by the Turkish competition authority. In this way, Turkey will reinforce its benchmark status on the one hand and will create positive externality by reflecting its experiences with the Western institutions, instruments, and values to other OIC countries on the other hand. The organizational and functional architectural design developed for the policy forum is in line with the approaches of the OECD and the EU.