ADB loan boosts PH’s fight vs. anti-competition practices

FILE: ADB Headquarters in Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines (Photo By AndreaADB – Own work/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

MANILA — The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has secured USD23.3-million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help build its capacity and of other government agencies to promote healthy business competition in the country.

PCC chairperson Arsenio Balisacan said the loan will finance the Capacity Building to Foster Competition Project that provides technical assistance and support for agencies with competition-related mandates to expand operations.

Balisacan said the Commission has built the country’s competition policy framework that will guide the private and public sectors in the coming years.

“However, it needs to further strengthen its ability to undertake rigorous competition enforcement for merger review and antitrust investigations, and competition research and advocacy. This has been particularly difficult for a new competition authority struggling to invest in its human capital while competing with the deeper pockets of large corporations,” he said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

Balisacan also underscored the need to empower relevant agencies so they can more effectively carry out their mandates related to the promotion of competition, including the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Justice, and Office of the Solicitor General.

“History and experience have shown that authorities operating in silos and without securing the support of fellow government agencies are rarely successful in implementing their policies,” he added.

The six-year project will provide government staff with opportunities to further their education and skills relevant to competition law and economics, including through non-degree programs, short-term courses, distance learning courses, secondments and scholarships for degree programs.

It will establish a center of excellence in competition law and policy at the University of the Philippines to expand the number of local experts on antitrust, competition policy, and research and advocacy.

Principal Country Specialist Cristina Lozano said, “the role of the academic community is very important so the government is to nurture local expertise in this field in the long term.

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Lozano said such a center of excellence in competition law and policy will also collaborate with other international centers of excellence and universities.

“So it’s an opportunity for the Philippines to be called a leader also in competition policy,” she added.

Jose Antonio Tan III, director for Public Management, Financial Sector, and Trade at ADB’s Southeast Asia Regional Department, said the ADB support aims to help the Philippines eliminate barriers to business entry and anti-competitive practices in many sectors of the economy, which affects prices for consumers.

“By fostering better enforcement of the competition law, this project will also help the government sustain economic growth in the Philippines, which at an average of 6.3 percent annually from 2010 to 2018, is among the fastest in Southeast Asia,” he said.