OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2012. An APEC Working Group held a meeting in Vladivostok to discuss the measures for developing competition in APEC. Participants included a representative of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), the Ministry of Economic Development, Primorie Regional Authority, and academic community, as well as representatives of antimonopoly, law and economic agencies of the economies of the Asian-Pacific region, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

The Working Group discussed competition policy in APEC economies, institutional reforms, competition advocacy and access to infrastructure.

FAS representative Daria Silkova made a report “Competition Advocacy in FAS Russia”. “Competition advocacy is one of our priorities”, pointed out the representative of Russian antimonopoly authority. “It is the efforts of the antimonopoly authority undertaken to prevent violations of the antimonopoly law, without engaging law enforcement mechanisms, but cooperating with other government agencies and business and increasing society’s awareness about the benefits of competition. It is easier to prevent an illness rather than to treat it.”

Daria Silkova discussed competition advocacy measures adopted by the antimonopoly authority, and informed the participants about a recently opened Training Centre of FAS Russia that would become a platform for universal interpretation of the antimonopoly law, the law on advertising and the law on control over state procurement.

“The main indicator of FAS efficiency, including competition advocacy, is its ranking by Global Competition Review”, emphasized the representative of Russian antimonopoly authority. “FAS is continuously improving its rating and in 2011 was ranked 17-27. Now FAS has set a goal to be included in the top ten competition authorities in the world within four years”.

Answering a question about the results of applying competition advocacy practices, Daria Silkova stated that in comparison with the first six months of 2011, the number of cases opened in 2012 decreased by 7%, which shows efficiency of the undertaken measures.

Summing up the meeting, the Working Group gave recommendations towards improving the Review of the most efficient measures for developing competition in the APEC region.

The representative of the Ministry of Economic Development said that by no means the Review includes all measures adopted by Russia. He emphasized that the law on state procurement was one of the most successful practices and recommended is for the countries with considerable state involvement in the economy. The Ministry representative pointed out that “one of the most important conditions for success of this practice is control over its compliance. In Russia FAS does this job splendidly”.