ASEAN Responds To Emerging Competition Landscape

By Minggu Simon Lhasa BANGKOK, June 9 (Bernama) -- ASEAN convened the 5th ASEAN Competition Conference (ACC), themed "Advancing Competition Policy and Law Post-2015: Progress, Opportunities and Challenges" on June 4-5 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It brought together officials from competition authorities and agencies as well as competition experts from within and outside the region, to discuss emerging issues and challenges in the context of the future ASEAN competition landscape. Over 100 participants, including from academia and business, also attended the conference, according to a statement from the ASEAN. Sovicheat Penn, Chair of the ASEAN Experts Group on Competition, delivered the keynote address. He highlighted that the outcomes of these discussions would contribute towards moving forward the ASEAN's post-2015 competition work programme, which forms part of its integration plan beyond 2015, with the aim of increasing the region's overall competitiveness. The proposed post-2015 ASEAN competition action plan was likely to contain strategic goals that were supportive of the overarching vision of a competitive, innovative, and dynamic ASEAN with an effective and progressive competition policy and law, said the ASEAN. It is envisaged that there will be continued focus on putting in place national competition laws in ASEAN Member States (AMS) based on international best practices, strengthening the institutional capacities of AMS to enforce competition law, increasing awareness of competition policy and law (CPL) in the region, enhancing regional cooperation arrangements and working towards greater CPL harmonisation. The need for effective competition policies is being driven by varying political, economic and social factors, including the need to provide and protect the processes of competition and promote consumer welfare. Post-2015, the AMS will also need to consider issues relating to regional cooperation and possible convergence in certain elements of the Member States' competition laws to promote more certainty for business. The 5th ACC was hosted by the Vietnam Competition Authority. It is co-sponsored by the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area Economic Cooperation Support Programme and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, upon commission of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. --BERNAMA