International Meeting on Competition Held

An international meeting on competition policy and law was organised by CUTS International, an Indian based international NGO, in collaboration with the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) of Vietnam on August 16-17, at Melia, Hanoi. The meeting is also a reviewing the progress of an international project entitle ‘Advocacy and Capacity Building on Competition Policy and Law in Asia’.

 

The Project, implemented by CUTS and supported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID), UK is an initiative endeavoring to accelerate the progress towards a functional competition policy and law for selected countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam in Southeast Asia and Bangladesh, Nepal and India in South Asia) and advance the enabling environment for such law and policy to be better enforced.

 

The meeting as well as the project have special significance for Vietnam as it has recently adopted its competition law. Under its component, the project has been providing training and other support to the officials of the Competition Administration Department, Ministry of Trade, other relevant government officials as well as national consumer representatives for proper enforcement of the Competition Law 2004.

 

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Hans Peter Egler of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland said, Vietnam had made several achievements over the last years in improving the business environment, yet a lot remains to be done. Mr Nguyen Danh Vinh, Vice Minister of Trade of Vietnam observed the State had to build a fair, equal and non-discriminatory competition environment to support and promote enterprises doing business and to attract more foreign investors to Vietnam.