BRICS COMPETITION CONFERENCE: WHAT WILL EXPERTS DISCUSS

The concept of one of the parallel sessions at BRICS Competition Conference – “State Participation in the Economy” – is approved. The session will be moderated by Deputy Head of FAS Anatoly Golomolzin

The session will discuss the role of the state in general and of the antimonopoly body in particular, for example, in strengthening market economy; the main problems associated with antimonopoly regulation of natural monopolies and state corporations, tariff regulation and deregulation, applying the principles of competitive neutrality in state competition policy.

State impact on business is becoming increasingly more important. Frequently, direct and indirect state regulation of the economic system is necessary to reduce adverse manifestations of market forces. The level of state intervention and control over market processes still is a subject of acute discussions between regulators and stakeholders.  

To eliminate state monopolism trends in the economy, the goals, objectives and principles of state regulation of natural monopolies should be determined, the list and the procedure for applying state tariff and non-tariff regulatory measures designed to improve efficiency and flexibility, and conditions must be created for developing competition, particularly, in the sectors related to operations of natural monopolies, and contradictions and duplicating interrelated norms in different laws should be eliminated.

The state should facilitate development of on-exchange trade, which in many countries is already the fundamental principle of state competition development policy.

According to the competitive neutrality principles, private, public, municipal and other forms of property should be recognized and equally protected.

Presence of a lot of companies with state or municipal participation is often associated with enormous number of violations of the antimonopoly law and their conduct on the market is frequently discriminating. Privatization of state and municipal property can be the key tool for competitive relations on the markets subject to state influence.

The session participants:

Moderator:

- Anatoly Golomolzin, Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia);

Speakers:

- João Otávio de Noronha, President, Brazil Supreme Court;

- Kirill Yemelyanmov, Deputy Director, Department for Competition,  Energy Efficiency and Environment, the Ministry of Economic Development  of the Russian Federation;

- Theodor Tanner, General Director, Federal Competition Authority, Austria;

- Vasiliki Tanu-Christoforou, President, Greece Competition Commission (tbc);

- Miloje Obradović, Head, Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition;

- Mert Ots, Head of Estonia’s Competition Authority;

- Alberto Heimler, Chairman, No.2 Working Group, OECD Competition Committee;

- Elena Zaeva, Head of FAS Department for Regulating Communications and Information Technologies;

- Andrey Rego, General Council’s Chairman, the Antimonopoly Experts Association, and Director of Regulatory Risks Department, “MTS”;

- Representatives of the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China (tbc);

- NGA from India (tbc).