ASEAN Experts Group on Competition Launches Handbook as a Tool to Help Companies Stay Competitive in the Region

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Handbook provides businesses with information on region’s competition laws,giving companies a head-start

SINGAPORE, 3 November 2010 – The ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC) unveiled the “Handbook on Competition Policy and Law in ASEAN for Business” in Singapore today.  As more countries in the region adopt competition policies and laws, the Handbook will help multinational corporations (MNCS) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) navigate these developments.

Developed to meet the needs of MNCs and SMEs engaged in business in the region, the Handbook is an easy-to-understand guide on how competition policies and laws can help and protect them as they grow their business regionally. 

In addition to the unveiling of the Handbook, the “ASEAN Regional Guidelines on Competition Policy” was also unveiled.  The Regional Guidelines is a common reference for all public policy makers in the region on international best practices in competition law and policy implementation. Together, the two publications will contribute towards the goal of a highly competitive economic region as envisaged in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint.

The Handbook and Guidelines were unveiled today by Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community, His Excellency S. Pushpanathan.  In his opening remarks, His Excellency highlighted the great importance that ASEAN region had placed on fostering and ensuring open markets and a level playing field for business and investments in ASEAN. He further mentioned that global economic dynamism had intensified competition in the last two decades. “Competition Policy and Law has played and will continue to play a complementary role in helping governments, businesses and the consumers to reap the full benefits of greater external liberalisation and domestic policy deregulation”, he added.

The AEGC had established the two working groups for the Handbook and the Regional Guidelines in 2008. The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) was both the inaugural Chair of AEGC in 2008, as well as the Chair of the working group on Regional Guidelines. CCS also participated actively as a member of the Handbook working group. 

“CCS hopes that the publications on competition policy and law in ASEAN will be useful guides for businesses looking to establish an ASEAN footprint. A sound pro-competition framework helps companies to compete better, be more innovative, and offers more choices for the business community and the general public,” said Ms Yena Lim, Chief Executive, Competition Commission of Singapore. 

More than 120 members of the business community as well as senior officials from government agencies, legal firms and academia attended the event.

"To Singapore companies, the ASEAN Region is one significant market for the trading of goods and it is also the growth centre for the export of services.  SBF therefore appreciates the efforts of ASEAN to foster a transparent and conducive environment for doing business in the region.  The Handbook and Regional Guidelines will instill in companies tremendous confidence and predictability of the markets, two qualities which companies seek most when conducting cross border business operations.  Singapore companies will have a new resource to study, understand and harness the growth potential in ASEAN by building an integrated supply chain,” said Mr Teng Theng Dar, Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Business Federation (SBF).

The forum in Singapore was jointly organised by the AEGC, the ASEAN Secretariat and the Competition Commission of Singapore, and supported by InWEnt – Capacity Building International, Germany – and German Federal Foreign Office.

Editors’ Notes

About Competition Commission of Singapore

The Competition Commission of Singapore ("Commission") is a statutory body established under the Competition Act (Chapter 50B) on 1 January 2005 to administer and enforce the Act. It comes under the purview of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

For more information, visit www.ccs.gov.sg.

About the ASEAN Experts Group on Competition

The ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC) is formed as the official body comprising of representatives from the competition authorities and agencies responsible for competition policy in AMSs.  AEGC is a forum for discussing and coordinating competition policies in ASEAN and oversees the implementation of the tasks and activities relating to competition policy as laid out in the AEC Blueprint.

For more information, visit www.asean.org

About the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint

The ASEAN Leaders adopted the ASEAN Economic Blueprint at the 13th ASEAN Summit on 20 November 2007 in Singapore to serve as a coherent master plan guiding the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community 2015.

For queries, please contact 1800 3258282.