An international view on the “new reality”

The Heads of competition authorities from different countries, experts and representatives of Russian authorities were speakers at an extended FAS Collegium – an International Conference in the course of “The Russian Competition Week”.

The Head of the Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition, Yulia Ratcheva Nenkova discussed the prospects of developing international cooperation between antimonopoly authorities across the world under the expanding world economy. She emphasized that “bilateral cooperation between competition authorities is a necessary condition for efficient work”.

Andras Horvai, Country Director and Resident Representative of the World Bank for the Russian Federation, outlined experiences of various countries in  antimonopoly reforms. “Such initiatives not only eliminate administrative barriers and facilitate competition development, but also, in some cases, encourage growth of the national GDP and the number of jobs through establishing a single market”.  In his view, free competition is the best incentive for enhancing company productivity.

Then Director of UNCTAD Division on International Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities, Guillermo Valles, put forward an idea of creating an institutional structure that would eliminate a fragmented approach in international law-making. He said that “we need laws upon which all antimonopoly bodies from different countries without exception can base their work.” “Judicial system also should be involved in creating it”, added Mr. Guillermo Valles.

Deputy Minister for Communications, Mikhail Yevraev, covered the issues of cooperation between the Ministry for Communications and FAS on devising the Road Map for electronic trading. One of the key novelties in the Road Map was rejection of electronic bidding. According to Mikhail Yevraev, “when a participant files a price offer, it should become a bid”. The speaker highlighted these and many other proposals, both in the housing-and-utility sector as well as in postal operations.

The General Director of the Austria Competition Authority, Theodor Tanner outlined his vision of the “new reality”, that in the opinion of Mr. Tanner, today is demonstrated in the so-called “digitalization of the economy” and market globalization. He pointed out that “digital markets of services, the Internet, etc., are very mobile and quickly changing markets. No doubt this is the new reality that apart from positive aspects is bringing in new barriers and obstacles. Joint cooperation under such conditions becomes very useful. We will be able to find new solutions for those issues only through joint efforts”.

The Chairman of the State Commission of the Republic of Armenia for Protection of Economic Competition, Artak Shaboyan raised general issues facing all antimonopoly bodies in different countries. He emphasized that “competition protection is a complex objective. Under such conditions we must act in a coordinated manner following the unified competition rules”.