IGOR ARTEMIEV: MAKE SURE THAT THE ROAD MAP ON COMPETITION DEVELOPMENT IS FULFILLED
Particularly, in competitive bidding and procurement planning
The order issued following a meeting at the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation1.
Head of FAS informed about it at a working meeting with Minister of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of the Republic of Belarus, Vladimir Koltovichon 22 August 2019.
“It is necessary to integrate the National Competition Development Plan in the National projects not only to make the procedures for selecting contactors competitive. The most important is that as a result of executing the projects in facilities construction, emerging new companies and acquiring publicly-funded property, competitive relations also develop. Because competition always lead to increasing labour productivity and workplaces, diversity of gods for consumers and decreasing production costs”, pointed outIgor Artemiev.
He informed that in the near future FAS intends to submit the 13th Annual Report on the state of competition in Russia. The Report outlines the outcome of FAS work started after the President of Russia signed the Order on the main directions of the state policy towards competition development that approved the National Plan.
“The Report also highlights efficiency and the main results within ICAP, the Union State, which agenda serves as a basis for our work on a broader scale (BRICS, UNCTAD, particularly to counter international cartels and adverse practices of economic coordination”, said Head of FAS.
He also described FAS-drafted Federal Law on the basic principles of tariff regulation. “It indicates that benchmarking or the comparative method will become the main regulatory method in tariff-setting”, explained Igor Artemiev.
According to Head of FAS, it should stop tariff discrimination that exited in the pricing system for the past 20 years. After the system is built on the legislative level, uncertainty in the prime costs calculation schemes will be erased and it will be necessary to estimate the benchmark only once, using the technology approved by the Government of Russia.
“In practically all cases FAS manages to fulfill the tariff policy under the “inflation minus” principle, which, in its turn, neutralize uneven tariff indexation across Russia”.
Igor Artemiev also informed about the expected liquidation of the Law on natural monopolies which will reform the system of natural monopolies and eliminate the factor when the law deters transformation of natural monopolies into competitive sectors. Instead, a Special Chapter will be added to the Law “On Protection o Competition”, when the current conceptual and terminological discrepancies will be removed.
Vladimir Koltovich stated that Belarus is also approving a Competition Development Programme, which should result in increasing the number of economic entities, the investment attractiveness of Belarus and reaching sustainable economic growth based on development of the competitive environment and curtailing inflation.
He mentioned that 86 staff members from the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of the Republic of Belarus had completed qualification advancement coursed at FAS Center for Education and Methodics in Kazan under the framework of inter-departmental cooperation.