Session on the Way Forward 1

 ASEAN Leaders have agreed during 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore on 20 November 2007 to adopt the AEC Blueprint which each ASEAN Member Country shall abide by and implement the AEC by The AEC Blueprint will transform ASEAN into a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy.  ASEAN Member States (AMSs) have committed in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint to introduce nation-wide competition policy and law (CPL) by

 We have heard that all country are committed to have competition policy and law before 2015;  Generally, all we need is ADVOCACY. 3

 Regional level of challenges  Competition culture is lacking, size of economy, differences of level of development, lack of resources  Variation and uniqueness of individual country (there will be 10 different competition law)  Level of economic development and issues faced.  Country level challenges (three types) 4

 Grouping member countries into three groups of competition development:  AMSs with implemented CPL;  AMSs at legislation level;  AMSs have not started the development of CPL. 5

 Consist of Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and newly implemented, Malaysia;  Major issues:  Effective implementation of CL (implementation framework);  Effective advocacy strategies;  Integrating and harmonizing competition policies with sectoral regulations (institutional coordination);  Adjustment (amendment) of law and policy  Major needs for capacity building:  comprehensive competition analysis;  competition impact measurement;  policy dialogue; 6

 Consist of Lao, Cambodia, and Philippines;  Major issues:  Size of economic development is relatively small;  Market institution still undeveloped;  Role of competition to economic development;  Public awareness, and human resources support, and expertise.  Major needs:  Gaining (political) support to foster the legislation through publications and public outreaches;  Expertise in formulating regulations (conceptual knowledge);  Modalities of competition law;  Different competition provisions;  Information and experience sharing. 7

 Consist of Brunei and Myanmar;  Major issues:  Role of competition to economic development;  Economic system, policies still centralized;  Level of economy relatively small;  Lack of awareness on the necessity of CPL;  Major needs:  Information and experience sharing about the role of competition policy to economic development;  Policy dialogue on economic reforms. 8

 Focus on:  Common needs and challenges;  Needs assessment for specific AMS;  Design modalities of capacity building for common needs;  Design program for each specific AMS needs, with maximum cooperation between AMS especially from more experienced AMS; 9

 The existence of CPL mostly comes from external pressure. Current pressure raises by target as mentioned in the blueprint, because effective promotion of competition policy will need specific national competition law;  Slow movement, despite of closer time frame for economic integration;  Determinant factors fostering development among others based on each characters of AMSs, nature of economic development, and legal system. 10

 Balancing national versus regional approaches on capacity building.  Involvement on strategic policy making is necessary to raise attention of policy maker (role of HLMC).  To ensure the balance between countries specific feature and broad harmony of ASEAN.  Start to utilize ASEAN countries to help other ASEAN countries (ASEAN for ASEAN). 11

 AMSs shall start to think what they should do beyond  Creating individual action plans (blueprint) after 2015?  Common platform for ASEAN?  Possible bilateral cooperation?  Other ideas? 12