The current Competition Law has yet to come into practice, and it would need further improvement to reach its full frame, said Trinh Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
At a conference held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in Hanoi on May 10 to gather enterprises’ opinions for the draft revised Competition Law, Tuan stressed the importance of the law on competition in facilitating economic growth and protecting a fair environment for national competition.
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| Conference to gather enterprises’ opinions for the draft revised Competition Law in Hanoi__Photo:MInh Quyet/VNA |
The conference introduced several changes in the bill with a view to building a socialist-oriented market economy with in-depth global economic integration.
For his part, Dau Anh Tuan, Director of the VCCI’s Legal Department, stressed the need for the draft revised competition law which, he said, showed several inadequacies in defining legal breaches in fair business competition, including competition suppression agreement, monopolistic behaviors, market domination and economic concentration abuse, while the previous set of elements for identifying a relevant market was now considered impractical and obstructive to law enforcement.
In addition, the law on competition is making it difficult to investigate cases of unfair competition. There has been no definite legal framework for the competition authority to obtain proof of unfair competitive practices, if any, of businesses, and to assess the level of damage done by these breaching businesses in order to prevent and punish such practices.
The draft revised competition law built on the basis of anti-trust practice to promote fair competitive actions amongst businesses aims to increase Vietnam’s economic efficiency and protect the rights and benefits of Vietnamese businesses and consumers.
Another objective of the revised law is to guarantee fairness and transparency of court rulings in unfair competition cases and to affirm the government’s central role in protecting fair market competition.
Tang Van Nghia, Dean of the Postgraduate Department of the Foreign Trade University, praised the upcoming changes. He advised lawmakers to add conditions for immunity of businesses that allow them, with justifiable reasons, to be free in deciding on and discounting their product prices and product quantities to be supplied.
Dinh Thi My Loan, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Retailers Association, emphasized the necessity to merge the VCA with the National Competition Council and put the new agency under the management of the MoIT and more clearly define its responsibilities.
The draft revised law is expected to institutionalize and realize the government’s policy to build a fair market-based environment free of monopoly and unfair competition in the near future.-(VLLF)
