Training Workshop on Competition Policy and Advocacy

The ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC) Training Workshop on Competition Policy and Advocacy was organized in Singapore on 28-29 July 2008. Twenty four senior officials from ASEAN competition and related authorities/agencies and the ASEAN Secretariat participated in the workshop. ADBI co-sponsored this workshop with the US Federal Trade Commission (USFTC).

The workshop is part of the capacity building program to assist ASEAN countries to develop and harmonize competition laws and policies by 2015. It comprises two main sessions, the first on competition policy and the second on competition advocacy.

The session on competition policy reviewed the current status of competition laws in ASEAN and discussed lessons from developed and developing countries. Some of the findings and conclusions are:

1. There is some convergence in competition laws and practice, including in the analytical techniques used to apply competition laws.
2. Competition agencies employ a variety of remedies depending on the seriousness of the offense so the new competition law and agency should have available to it the full range of possible remedies.
3. Competition law and effective competition policy advocacy complement and support each other.
4. Great care should be taken in defining markets, products, barriers to entry, anti-competitive conduct and restrictive business practices.
5. Broad sectoral exclusions should be avoided. Exclusions should arise naturally from the application of economy-wide standards and tests based on substantial lessening of competition and careful defining of markets.

The second session discussed and shared practices and experiences on competition advocacy in the US, EU, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. Competition advocacy generally refers to non-enforcement activities of competition authorities intended to promote welfare-enhancing competition in markets. Government oriented advocacy seeks to foster understanding and acceptance of competition policies within government while community oriented advocacy promotes understanding and acceptance of competition policy in a wider community.

In developing countries, challenges to competition advocacy are identified as:

1. lobbying by interest groups for selective assistance measures in response to substantial trade and investment liberalization,
2. relatively weak market supporting institutions, and
3. limited financial and human resources of competition authorities.

The following initiatives and tools are employed and/or recommended to increase business and public awareness of competition policies and laws:

1. Press bulletins
2. Radio and TV interviews by head of competition authority
3. Live presentations/feature newspaper articles by head or senior officials of competition authority
4. Road shows – public forums to discuss competition issues
5. Roundtable or cooperative forums comprising entrepreneurs and consumers
6. Seminars and workshops for business, lawyers, judiciary, academia on specific competition issues
7. Liaison with universities to include competition policy and law in their economic or law courses
8. Assistance to/collaboration with industry groups to draft voluntary codes of conduct
9. Economic studies of competition issues in various industries or sectors
10. Progress and overview reports on competition reforms, including their nature and expected benefits
11. Annual report of competition authority
12. Production of plain language guidelines and brochures.