1. Observations on the Competition Toolkit of Namibia Omu Kakujaha-Matundu Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) Presented at CUTS workshop: Promoting a Healthy Competition Culture in SSA Gaborone, Botswana 14-15 February 2008

2. Introduction Toolkit: An important guide to competition policy in Namibia for competition authority officials and administrators + others Difficulty: no-one has used it (yet) and that makes it difficult to solicit comments Received good reception and commented by few reviewers as very useful Some general comments will be in order

3. Toolkit: A Useful Tool A great advocacy tool NaCC to embark on information drive soon Information from toolkit to be used for information pamphlets The Boxes contain very illustrative and useful casestudies

4. Theoretical exposition Very useful – improves conceptual understanding to competition Definition of terms which are left vague in the Act has been defined and elaborated –E.g., “relevant market” (pp 13-15): which is not defined in Act is offered with some examples with ref. to product & geographic market and time period p12: Reference to Namibia as single party state is not clear (para 5)

5. Toolkit on The Namibian Act One would recommend that the Toolkit do not bring out gaps/loopholes in the law which can be to the advantage of other parties Separate recommendations can be made for the amendment or clarification of the particular sections [e.g., section 27 (1) pp 20 – 21 & p50 on section Section 33 (3)]:

6. Interpretation of Namibian Act P21 “The unclear formulation of the section 27 may cause confusion concerning the exemption from the provision of Part II (Exemption from the abuse of dominant position)…” P50 (para 4) under Detection of Violations which refers to: “Section 33 (3) requiring that the Commission must in writing give notice of the proposed investigation…constitute a huge obstacle in investigation of anticompetitive practices.”

7. Interpretation of Namibian Act Similarly, Section 10 (p 87) A suggested framework for Namibia should not form part of the toolkit but submitted as separate recommendations for possible amendment of the Act

8. Conclusions Toolkit is a very useful tool Could be improved on with time as more people start using it Specific loopholes in the Act should not be included in the toolkit Section 10 should be submitted as separate recommendations to the Namibian authority

9. Thank you very much for your attention!