Sri Lanka’s legal luminaries have made recommendations to amend the law to address anti-competitive practices of state organs and introduce competitive law regime in attracting Foreign Direct Investment to the country.
This was one of the conclusions arrived at the National Law Conference held at Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo recently. Shibly Aziz, PC President of the Bar Association told the Business Times that one of the issues that were discussed pertaining to FDI was the role of a competitive law regime in attracting FDI. Some of the debates that followed the recent enforcement of a minimum price regulation for telecommunication service providers were compared as an example, with the strict competitive practices for FDI adopted in the EU, Japan and India.
The EU particularly was seen as a jurisdiction that attracts FDI by using strict competitive practices, which included unannounced investigations, called Dawn Raids, of businesses which are suspected of anti competitive operations, the increase of surcharges, and introduction of leniency programs and enhanced investigative powers of the competitive authority through the power of issuing search warrants, he said.
He revealed that another recommendation was made to create a support division in the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) which would be similar to the abolished Fair Trading Commission for monitoring competition, given that prohibiting anti-competitive practices of monopolies and mergers, and inquiring into anti competitive acts or abuse of monopoly in State institutions, were not within the ambit of authority of the CAA.
A Five Year Road Map for the legal fraternity has been launched at the conference. Some of the goals in the Road Map included inculcating a sense of social responsibility in lawyers, to encourage and ensure that professionals continue to develop their expertise and enhance their knowledge throughout the course of their careers, Mr. Aziz said.
Yet another way in which the Conference sought to ensure that the topics discussed were relevant to the people of the country was by launching a website that called for lawyers, academics and any member of the public to voice their comments, concerns and suggestions on relevant issues. These comments were thereafter, used to determine some of the issues that were considered during panel discussions at the event itself, he said. |
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