Fostering the Promotion of Competition Policy for Regional Development
Comission for the Supervision of Business Competition (KPPU) cooperates with the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC), German International Cooperation (GIZ), ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA)-Economic Cooperation Work Program (ECWP) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organized the ASEAN Competition Conference (ACC) with the theme “Fostering the Promotion of Competition Policy for Regional Development” in Padma Resort Legian, Bali on November 15-16th 2011. The conference was attended by 250 participants from governments, parliaments, business, academicians and legal practitioners in ASEAN are intended to achieve the same understanding, not only among the competition authorities but also among the stakeholders in the ASEAN countries of the importance of the competition law and policy , but it is also expected the relations between competition agencies both at the ASEAN and the world.
While Mr. Bayu Krisnamurthi stressed that competition policy is one of an important part in supporting free trade and enhance the competitiveness of a country. With the goal of promoting competition policy in 2015 requires active participation from stakeholders in the ASEAN region, especially policy makers, private parties, public and international partners. The success of competition policy relies on joint efforts through collaboration and cooperation of all stakeholders and this conference is one way to achieve that goal.
Furthermore, the issues discussed at the conference include (1) the benefits of competition policy and consumer law, economic growth and development, (2) competition law and policy support to small and medium enterprises and job creation, (3) best practice in adopting and implementing competition law and policy, (4) the challenges in introducing competition law and policy towards ASEAN member countries, (5) comparison of the competition regime in the ASEAN region, (6) the role of competition law and policy in promoting the ASEAN Economic Community and international competitiveness and (7) the development of future policy and competition law.
Finally, although the one with the other members has different approach to competition law and policy, but the elaboration of each – individual agendas of each participant country will be very useful to support the existence of competition law. Furthermore, this is expected to support the acceleration of the target achievement of business competition law and policy as mandated by the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint (AEC Blueprint).
