On the sidelines of a conference on competition law and policy here Wednesday, KPPU deputy chairman Tri Anggraini said an expansion of the domestic market due to the implementation of the so-called ASEAN Single Market by 2015 would require a stronger market watchdog to ensure protection for all business players from unfair business practices.

“There will surely be tighter competition between local and foreign products, and we will work jointly with the Trade Ministry, the Industry Ministry and related institutions to watch out for dumping practices, for example,” she said.

She said any business, foreign or local, would be punished for unfair practices. “In line with the principles of healthy business competition, both local and foreign companies should receive equal treatment,” she added.

Since it was established in 2000, the KPPU has issued 237 verdicts, 150 of which were enforced by the court. Fourty-seven of the agency’s decisions were taken to the Supreme Court for appeal, with the majority being upheld.

During the conference, some 20 participating countries exchanged information about their respective systems for implementing business competition laws.

Michiyo Hamada, commissioner of the Japan Fair Trade Commission said implementing competition laws was difficult.

“We see many countries have shining examples of competition law and a decent competition authority, but are sluggish to implement the competition law. This might be due to a lack of understanding among the public, strong resistance from the business community and uncooperative government agencies,” she said.

She hailed the KPPU’s remarkable achievements in implementing business competition law since the body was established 10 years ago.

“If we look at the record of KPPU’s enforcement, we find that it has handled more than 200 cases up until now, with a total amount of fines and other pecuniary measures exceeding Rp 1 trillion [US$108 million]. These figures vividly show that it has been very successful in implementing the law during its first decade.”

She said that in the early phases of implementing business competition policies, advocacy was one of the most important elements to have in place to establish a sound and vigorous competition regime, as was the dissemination the importance of competition policies to other government regulators and to the public.

“I heard that the KPPU has made more than 70 policy recommendations to government regulators, and I’m happy to know that most of the recommendations were positively received,” she added.

William E. Kovacic, commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission, said that the successful execution of competition policy programs required a continuing commitment by donor agencies and host country competition authorities to assess the impacts of efforts to design and implement a competition policy system.

“In emerging markets, the issue is whether creating a competition policy system deserves high priority in economic reform measures. Transition economies should take affirmative measures to increase business rivalry as a tool for promoting growth,” he said.

He said it was also important to form an antitrust enforcement program to resist collusion among competitors.

“The main problem encountered by most transition countries is that there is a significant mismatch between national implementation capabilities and the demands of new competition laws, which usually refer to Western countries,” he said.

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