Over the years, and with the leadership of the ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC), the ASEAN region has made good progress in its efforts towards strengthening competition law enforcement among ASEAN Member States (AMSs). Technical assistance from Japan, including through the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), has been extended since 2008. Most recently through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), the project Technical Assistance for ASEAN Competition Authorities to Strengthen Competition Law Enforcement in ASEAN Region has helped enhance capacities of 263 AMS authorities from competition agencies and other competition-related government agencies to enforce their competition policies and laws (CPL). However, and as informed by this project’s implementation, the recommendations outlined in the ASEAN Capacity Building Roadmap on Competition Policy and Law (2017-2020) , and the ASEAN Competition Action Plan (ACAP) 2025, further work still needs to be done, and hence, the Second Phase of the project.
Under the Second Phase, in addition to contributing to the ACAP 2025 strategic goal of strengthening AMSs’ capacities to effectively implement their CPL, the project will also focus on other strategic goals. These include: establishing effective competition regimes; establishing regional cooperation arrangements on CPL; fostering a competition-aware ASEAN region; and moving towards greater harmonization of CPL in ASEAN.
