ANDREY TSARIKOVSKY REQUESTED FAS REGIONAL BODIES TO WATCH PRICES FOR CONSUMER PRODUCTS

The agenda also included development of competition in regions, use of economic analysis in cartel investigations, bans to form state and municipal unitary enterprises, and some practical issues

On 18 March 2020, Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovsky and Governor of the Astrakhan region Igor Babushkin opened a workshop of FAS regional Offices in the South Federal District.

Deputy Head of FAS emphasized the importance of regional workshops and collegial discussions of pressing issues of the antimonopoly policy.

He highlighted that “participation of the executive branch of power in our regional workshops is essential because this is the only way to comprehensively discuss competition in regions and find a common avenue to its further development, work in a prompt manner and follow unified practice”.

Andrey Tsarikovsky called upon Heads of the Offices of the Antimonopoly Service present at the event to watch prices for basic consumer goods. “Such phenomena must be watched carefully, sometimes there are economic reasons but sometimes the main factor is collusions”.

Opening the event, Governor of the Astrakhan region said:“For us establishing a favourable competitive environment is one of the priorities because it influences development of private initiative and factors stimulating self-employment of the population as well as attracting domestic and foreign investments in the economy”.

Deputy Head of FAS Alexei Dotsenko joined the main part of the workshop.

He emphasized the success of the Astrakhan region in competition development, particularly, implementing antimonopoly compliance by executive bodies and adopting the Road Map for competition support.

In his opinion, “the Astrakhan region demonstrates efficient execution of the measures of the National Competition Development Plan in all 33 markets chosen by Astrakhan”.

Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Astrakhan region – Minister for Economic Development of the Astrakhan region, Kazbek Khadikov; Head of Astrakhan OFAS Nikolai Merkulov; representatives of specialized Department of FAS Central Office and regional Offices of the Antimonopoly Service also took part in the event.