Competition law enforcement instills “good governance”, fair and honest business dealings and compete on merits, which are key ingredients towards greater productivity and healthy economic growth, according to Yang Mulia Dr Hajah May Fa’ezah binti Haji Ahmad Ariffin, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Economy and Finance) at Prime Minister’s Office Brunei Darussalam in her closing remarks concluding 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 the real-world cases and exchanged views on key challenges and options in applying economic thinking in competition investigations.
In the closing, participants applauded that although the workshop was designed for competition law, the economic concepts and lessons learnt throughout the workshop are, in fact, 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.
Yang Mulia Dr Hajah May concluded her remarks with a great hope that the workshop would be beneficial and value adding in developing our domestic institution’s capacity in developing “economic thinking” and hoped that participants can share the takeaways with their respective agencies.
The workshop was concluded with certificate presentation by Yang Mulia Dr Hajah May and Ms Jennifer Orr, senior economist at ACCC to 35 senior officials from local government agencies as well as regional competition agencies in ASEAN.
The workshop was organized 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 Program (CLIP).
The workshop was conducted at the Rizqun International Hotel, Gadong, Bandar Seri Begawan from 7 to 9 February 2017.
Press Release by the Department of Economic Planning and Development,
Prime Minister’s Office