BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN/ONLINE, 25 October 2022 – The Plenary Meeting for the Pilot Peer Review of Malaysia’s Competition Commission (MyCC) Competition Advocacy Activities took place online on 21 October, following the inaugural ASEAN Voluntary Peer Review.
In his remarks, Chief Executive Officer of MyCC Iskandar Ismail reiterated that MyCC is the first Competition Authority to volunteer for the pilot peer review, contributing to ASEAN’s mission of attaining a level-playing field for all firms through an effective competition policy.
The Peer Review Report was completed following extensive desk research, interviews and discussions, dissemination of questionnaires involving businesses, the appeal tribunal, academia, State Owned Enterprises and sector regulators. The report was developed with the support of consultants over two and a half years, with some delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Plenary Meeting deliberated on the findings, key recommendations and takeaway points of the peer review exercise. ASEAN Members States (AMS), a set of Peer Review Team, representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat, and a team of consultants, were in attendance.
The findings found that MyCC has achieved considerable progress in building awareness of competition law since its inception. To further strengthen its advocacy efforts, the exercise found the need to intensify media campaigns, tailor advocacy and communication materials to be more targeted to specific stakeholder groups, simplify messages, and undertake regular assessments of its advocacy programmes.
The plenary meeting was an opportunity for AMS to learn from each other’s experiences, share best practices and perspectives on encountered common issues, and helped to deepen regional cooperation arrangements. The exercise also helped identify ways to improve the overall peer review exercise – to better select the methodology to be pursued, identify solutions to challenges presented throughout the peer reviewed process, and to obtain results that would best assist the peer reviewed country to strengthen their competition law frameworks.
Hajah Rena Azlina Dato Haji Abdul Aziz, Head of Executive Secretariat of Consumer Committee of Brunei Darussalam, and ASEAN Experts Group on Competition Chair (AEGC) thanked MyCC for its leadership in undertaking the first Voluntary ASEAN Peer Review Exercise. The exercise is vital for AMS to assess the effectiveness of their national competition regimes or a selected function of their regimes, and also to assess whether the Peer Review Guidance Document is effective and practical.
The ASEAN Peer Review mechanism was formulated to be flexible to cater to the peer reviewed country’s circumstances, developmental stage, and priorities. In-line with the ASEAN Competition Action Plan 2025, the AEGC will need to undertake two voluntary peer reviews of selected competition regimes in ASEAN by 2025.
The Peer Review Exercise is supported by the Government of Japan through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), under the project entitled “Technical Assistance for ASEAN Competition Authorities to Strengthen Competition Law Enforcement in ASEAN region – Second Phase”.
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