ETCO's executive president, Roberto Abdenur, gives a quick overview of the institute's main achievements in 2012, which highlighted the inclusion of the fight against corruption on the institution's agenda and the entry of important personalities in the Advisory Council .

The year 2012 established another milestone in the trajectory of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition. For the first time, ETCO has devoted part of its activities to the debate on corruption and how to eradicate it or, at least, reduce it. The issue of corruption is not outside the scope of competitive ethics. On the contrary, corruption has already been proven to jam the economy and impede the development of a country.

The highlight of the introduction of the topic on the agenda of ETCO's regular activities was the holding, in August, of the international seminar “The Impact of Corruption on Development”. Organized in partnership with the Valor Econômico newspaper, the seminar brought together prestigious personalities in the country, including former STF minister Ellen Gracie Northfleet; the chief minister of CGU, Jorge Hage; the vice president of the World Bank, Otaviano Canuto; the director of Public Governance and Territorial Development at the OECD, Rolf Alter; Congressman Carlos Zarattini and Josmar Verillo, from Amarribo.

As it does twice a year, in partnership with IBRE / FGV, ETCO released the Underground Economy Index, an estimate of activities purposely not declared to the authorities. After five years in decline, the underground economy was stagnant in 2012, remaining at 17%. The main reasons, according to the researchers, lie in the limit reached by the growth of formal employment. The good results of the economy have helped the formal labor market to grow in recent years. However, it should remain stable from now on, even as a result of the rigidity of labor laws and the level of education of the Brazilian. Only by investing heavily in education will Brazil be able to reach the levels observed in developed countries.

The fight against piracy, an important work front of ETCO, gained strength with the adhesion of the city of Vitória to the Cidade Livre de Piratária Program. Launched in 2009, the program is an initiative of the Ministry of Justice, part of the National Plan to Combat Piracy and is managed by ETCO. The cities of São Paulo and Osasco (SP), Brasília (DF), Curitiba (PR), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Belo Horizonte (MG), Cuiabá, Várzea Grande (MT) and Vitória (ES) have already joined the initiative .

Another highlight of the year was the launch of the book Corruption, Ethics and Economics - Reflections on Competition Ethics in Market Economies, by André Franco Montoro Filho. The work brings together texts produced by the author between 2006 and 2011, a period in which he dedicated himself to the study of the advantages of ethical behavior and the social losses of transgressions.

To crown a year of hard work - we mention just a few highlights above - the ETCO received four new members of its Advisory Board: Minister Ellen Gracie Northfleet, the former Defense Minister and member of the Supreme Court, Nelson Jobim, the rector of University of São Paulo, João Grandino Rodas, and the former chairman of the ETCO Board of Directors, Leonardo Gadotti Filho.

The year 2013 comes with the commitment of ETCO to maintain its strong performance in the areas already conquered and to expand its support and incentive to actions and initiatives linked to competitive ethics, in order to take the issue to increasingly broad layers of society.