Competition law enforcement instils 'good governance', fair and honest business dealings and compete on merits, which are key towards greater productivity and healthy economic growth.

This Observation was made by Dr Hajah May Faezah binti Haji Ahmad Ariffin, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Economy and Finance) at the Prime Minister's Office, during the closing of a three-day Asean regional workshop on Competition Economics in Practice.

Led by senior economists from Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), New Zealand Commerce Commission (NZCC) and Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS), the workshop provided insights on economic concepts underpinning the key prohibitions in the competition law including cartels, bid-rigging, abuse of dominance and anti-competitive merger.

Participants were exposed to real-world cases and exchanged views on key challenges and options in applying economic thinking in competition investigations. Participants noted that although the workshop was designed for competition law, the economic concepts and lessons learnt throughout the workshop were also applicable in many policy areas.

Some of the less sophisticated economic tools such as economic modelling, data analysis and economic evidence are useful in assessing market function of an economy.

Dr Hajah May Faezah expressed her hope that the workshop would be beneficial in developing the domestic institution's capacity in `economic thinking' and hoped that participants would share the takeaways with the respective agencies.

The workshop was concluded with a ceremony, during which Dr Hajah May Faezah and Jennifer Orr, senior economist at the ACCC presented certificates to 35 senior officials from local government agencies as well as regional competition agencies in Asean.

The workshop was organised by the Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE), the Prime Minister's Office, through the Competition and Consumer Affairs Division in collaboration with the ACCC, NZCC and the Asean Secretariat, under the support of Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) Competition Law Implementation Programme (CLIP).

The workshop was conducted at The Rizqun International Hotel from February 7-9, 2017.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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