ANDREY TSYGANOV: OUR MAIN TASK IS TO PURSUE PRO-COMPETITIVE POLICY

Said Deputy Head of FAS at a meeting in the Smolensk region

On 15 October 2019, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov and Governor of the Smolensk region, Alexei Ostrovsky chaired a session of the Economics and Investment Council at the Smolensk Regional Authority.

In the introductory remarks, Alexei Ostrovsky reported that the measures put in place by the Smolensk Regional Authority in the past four years helped creating the conditions for healthy and fair competition in the region.

He informed that “the Smolensk Region is on the leading positions in the Rating of Heads of regions by the level of competition development support, and in the top-20 regions - leaders in the past several years. Smolensk has successfully implemented the Competition Development Standard. The measures aimed at creating conditions for competition development are undertaken not only at the regional level but also by each municipality”.

“The most important is that practically a week ago – on 8 October, I signed 2019-2022 Road Map for developing competition in the Smolensk region, which is drafted in view of the changes to the federal Competition Development Standard. The Road Map comprises measures designed to facilitate competition development on 33 regional markets as well as systemic measures encouraging advancement of competitive environment in the region”, added Alexei Ostrovsky.

Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov focused on developing regional economy under the frame of executing the National Plan for Developing Competition in Russia.

He pointed out that the regional objectives of the National Competition Development Plan include reducing violations of the antimonopoly law by the authorities, making amendments to the Regulations of executive bodies in terms of the priorities in competition support on the relevant markets and organizing a system of antimonopoly compliance for executive bodies.

Deputy Head of FAS highlighted the achievements of the Smolensk region in reaching the targets of the National Plan. For instance, in 2018 antimonopoly violations by the authorities decreased by 53%, the procurement share by small and medium business increase by 4%, and the number of unitary enterprises dropped down by 7%.

Andrey Tsyganov pointed out that “overall in Russia violations by the authorities decreased by 14 %, but in the Smolensk region the figure halved. It is a very good indicator that the region is developing better than most subjects of the Russian Federation”.

He stated that National Projects in Russia should be fulfilled in accord with the competition standards. Deputy Head of FAS emphasized that working on the National Projects, federal and regional executive bodies must ensure unconditional execution of the measures specified in 2018-2020 National Competition Development Plan and the Road Map (Action Plan) for developing competition.

To carry out pro-competitive policy through the National and regional projects, competitive mechanisms of participation of economic entities in the National Projects should be introduced and each National Project should be integrated with the National Competition Development Plan.

“Our main task for the near future is to pursue pro-competitive policy through the National and regional projects”, underlined Deputy Head of FAS.

Andrey Tsyganov informed that special measures in the field of competition are not a one-off event. The Government of Russia instructed FAS together with the interested executive bodies to draft 2020-2025 National Competition Development Plan by March 2020.

“Thus, the National Competition Development Plan becomes a standing documents of strategic planning that will be implemented for further planning periods. I am confident that the Smolensk region will reach the objectives set by the President of the Russian Federation”, concluded Deputy Head of FAS.

Head of the Economic Development Department of the Smolensk region, Alexei Titov, detailed the Road Map (Action Plan) for developing competition in the Smolensk region, signed on 8 October. For example, Smolensk determined 33 priority markets for competition development. The target for the share of private companies is set at 100% by 2022 on 6 markets. For 12 markets the target for the share of private companies is from 80 to 100%. The strongest dynamics of the growth of private sector share is expected by 2022 in the markets of services for collection and transportation of solid municipal waste (60%), passenger road transportation on regular inter-municipal routes (30%), services for passenger and luggage transportation by taxi услуг (20%), and the market of medical services (10%).

Head of Smolensk OFAS, Vladimir Fomin described the practice of applying the antimonopoly law in the region.

He drew attention to a sharp decrease in antimonopoly violations (more than 70% in 3-4 years) and highlighted the areas that require attention, in FAS opinion: first of all, procurement and the market of passenger transportation on inter-municipal routes.