7th ASEAN Competition Conference 2017

On Day 1 of the conference, Mr Toh Han Li, Chief Executive of CCS, was moderator for the panel discussion on "ASEAN's Young Competition Agencies - the Tough Get Going". The panelists include Dato' Ahmad Hisham bin Kamaruddin, Commission Member of the MyCC and Atty Gwen De Vera, Executive Director of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC). The commentators include Mr Aung Min Thyke, Director of the Ministry of Commerce, Myanmar and Mr David Chrystall, Chief Advisor of the Competition Branch, Commerce Commission, New Zealand.

The panel discussed effective elements of an effect competition agency, ways to build political support and strengthen stakeholder commitment on the benefits of competition law, the value of priority-setting and resource allocation in an environment of competing priorities, as well as the limits of independence, transparency and accountability of young competition agencies.

On Day 2 of the conference, Mr Toh was on the panel "Competition and Innovation - Too Soon, Too Fast" and spoke about how competition agencies can stay relevant in the digital economy. He shared that disruptive innovations are a critical component of markets and the competitive process to drive benefits to businesses and consumers. This is also relevant and important for ASEAN regional integration, as he noted the huge potential for growth of the e-commerce market in ASEAN. Despite benefits of disruptive innovation, there are concerns raised in areas such as consumer protection and safety, restrictive business practices which may become problematic when dominance occurs in fast moving digital markets, and mergers and acquisitions that may reduce competition. Mr Toh urged competition agencies to balance tensions with advocacy, the latter as a sense check to ensure consumers and markets benefit ultimately in the long run.

About the 7th ASEAN Competition Conference (ACC)

The 7th ACC was hosted by the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) and co-organised together with the ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC), the ASEAN Secretariat, and the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) Economic Cooperation Support Programme (AECSP) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, upon commission of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The theme of the conference was ASEAN@50: Managing Change in A Competitive ASEAN.

The ACC provides a platform for ASEAN and relevant stakeholders to network, share best practices and discuss emerging issues on Competition Policy and Law (CPL) in the region. The conference is expected to build regional awareness on the importance of CPL towards strengthening ASEAN's economic integration.