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NRG Meeting II
(National Reference Group Second Round
Meetings)
In Media – Gambia
Pro-poor
Advocacy Group Holds Second NRG Meeting
The point, Gambia, November 03, 2009
National
Reference Group meeting held
Daily Observer, Gambia, November 02, 2009
Pro-poor Advocacy Group Holds Second
NRG Meeting
The point, Gambia, November 03, 2009
The Pro poor Advocacy Group in
close partnership with Centre for Competition, Investment
and Economic Regulation who are presently implementing a
two-year project, entitled "Strengthening constituencies for
effective Regimes in Select African countries (7UP4)," last
Friday held its second national reference meeting otherwise
called NRG II, at the Seaview Garden Hotel.
The research phase of the
project, which consists of perception survey of the general
state of competition in The Gambia, a survey of sectoral
regulator and operator in the seed, fertiliser and faming
industries have just been completed.
The purpose of the meeting is to
share the research findings on the state of competition in
The Gambia, with a wider group of national stakeholders;
evolve a national advocacy agenda and devise a plan as to
how the national advocacy agenda is to be operationalised.
The key priority issues were identified alongside key
advocacy strategies for addressing each of them.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr.
Omar Ousman Jobe, the Project Coordinator for 7UP4 informed
the gathering that the 7UP4 concept has been around for
sometime. He stated that "the Consumer Unity and Trust
Society (CUTS International) has made competition policy and
consumer protection issues its battle horse and has been
spreading the good news around the world, taking a group of
7 countries at a time."
According to him, the Pro-Poor
Advocacy Group (Pro-PAG) had participated in the launch
meeting of this ambitious project, and signed a Memorandum
of Understanding with CUTS in August 2008, to undertake a
two-year project entitled "Strengthening Constituencies for
Effective Competition Regimes in Select Western African
Countries (7Up4 Project)." He further revealed that the
project is three-fold.
"It seeks to document the state
of competition in The Gambia through literature review and
questionnaire based researches. On the strength of the
evidence obtained, advocacy campaigns will be undertaken
with a view to promoting a viable competition culture that
delivers maximum utility and value to consumers," he said,
adding that national stakeholder will also benefit from
capacity-building interventions.
According to Mr. Jobe, the
research findings found out that there is a general lack of
awareness of existence of competition laws among respondents
from the business sector of The Gambia. The existence of
regulatory authorities, he added, is however generally
known.
"The general perception that
competition issues are not well understood in the economy
and lack of sensitisation campaigns is cited as a
contributory factor to that low level of awareness," he
noted.
For his part, representative of
CUTS International India, Mr. Cornelius Dube said the
overall purpose of the 7UP4 project is to develop the
capacity of multiple stakeholders in select countries in
West Africa.
He noted that the unique feature
of the project is the involvement of civil society
representative as pioneers to take the debate on the need
for an effective competition regime up to the policy-makers,
through a bottom up advocacy process.
The news item can also be
viewed at:
http://thepoint.gm/
National Reference Group meeting held
Daily Observer, Gambia, November 02, 2009
The Pro-Poor Advocacy Group with
Consumer Unity and Trust Society CUTS Center for
Competitions, Investment and Economic Regulations (CUTS C-CIE
R), on Friday held their second national reference group
meeting on the implementation of a two-year project
entitled: ''Strengthening constituencies for effective
competition regimes in select Western African
countries?(7Up4 project), at the Seaview Garden Hotel in
Kololi.
The purpose of the meeting was
to share the research findings on the state of competition
in The Gambia with a wider group of national stakeholders
and to evolve a national advocacy agenda and an action plan
as to how the national advocacy agenda is to be
operationalised.
In his opening remarks, Yussupha
A.Kah, minister of Trade, Industry and Employment, said the
group is made up of key stakeholders interested in evolving
a viable competition regime for economic efficiency,
sustainable growth and poverty reduction in The Gambia.
According to him, the group is tasked to review the output
of the perception survey of the state of competition in key
sectors of the economy. ''I am reliably informed that as
part of this 7UP4 project, CUTS international will be
building the capacity of national constituents to prepare
them implement a viable competition regime and will also be
supporting advocacy initiatives for competition reform,'' he
said.
He observed that the private
sector requires the 'right enabling' environment and a
conducive 'investment climate' to thrive. The Gambia
government, he went on, through his ministry seeks to
implement a competition regime that is appropriate to their
needs and situation. Minister Kah noted that the Ministry of
Trade, Industry and Employment seeks to promote fair markets
and to enhance consumer welfare for economic development and
poverty reduction. ?As you are all aware, The Gambian
economy thrives on free market policies. The government
believes in private sector-led growth and development as
spelt out in the Vision 2020 blueprint and the country's MDG-based
PRSP. It is therefore imperative to make sure that
businesses operates on a level playing field. Our role as a
government is to alleviate poverty and provide the enabling
environment for a private sector-led growth,? he remarked.
He further told participants at
the meeting that competition regulation across all sectors
is a nascent phenomenon in The Gambia. He revealed that the
MoTIE with assistance from the Commonwealth Secretariat
facilitated the formulation of a Competition Act in 2007
with a view to fostering fair competition that increases
economic efficiency and safeguards consumer welfare.
As in all developing countries,
he went on, the Gambian economy is rife with examples of
anti-competitive business practices in all sectors. Such
practices, he said, harm consumers and prejudice economic
operators. These anti-competitive practices, he said include
collusive agreements, bid rigging, tied selling, market
sharing, predatory pricing, exclusive dealing, resale price
maintenance, cartels and the like. Effective competition
regimes on the other hand, he added, can have a big impact
on the welfare of the poor. '' Over-priced goods and
unsuitable products harm the poor tremendously,'' he stated.
Minister Kah further assured the
national stakeholders that MoTIE and the competition
commission will continue working on the tools and policies
of competition reform to deal with market inefficiencies and
stimulate growth. '' I am convinced that this project will
immensely benefit those entrusted with the responsibility of
developing and implementing The Gambia's competition
legislation. ?Key advocacy strategies or tools to address
each of them will be developed. In so doing, the NRG members
will chart a way forward for promoting a healthy competition
culture at the national level, as a mean to alleviating
poverty,? he concluded.
For his part, the Pro-PAG Policy
and Budget analyst, Omar Jobe, who is also the coordinator
of the 7UP4 project, told the audience that the thrust of
the 7UP4 project is three-fold: first, it seeks to document
the state of competition in The Gambia through literature
review and questionnaire based researches. Second, on the
strength of the evidence obtained, advocacy campaigns are
mounted with a view to promoting a viable competition
culture that delivers maximum utility and value to
consumers. Finally, he said, national stakeholders are
poised to benefit from capacity building interventions.
He indicated that the ?7UP4
approach? has been widely tested and validated in the other
developing countries in Asia and Africa, and is helping
foster effective competition regimes that benefit consumers
and stimulate economic growth. The project coordinator then
flagged some of the key findings of the research; thus
indicating that there is a general lack of awareness of
existence of competition laws among respondents from the
business sector of The Gambia. Jobe added that the existence
of regulatory authorities is however generally known, and
that the general perception that competition issues are not
well understood in the economy and lack of sensitization
campaigns are cited ascontributory factors to that low level
of awareness.
He indicated that the key
informants are of the opinion that competition issues are
rarely reported in the media due to lack of capacity and
awareness of competition issues by journalists. It is
however important to noted that civil society actors take
the view that there is absolutely no competition in the
power sector which is a natural monopoly. All the groups
reported that the level of competition in the retail
consumer goods sector is high (55.4% of the respondents).
Anticompetitive practices like
price fixing, market sharing and price discrimination are
considered to be rife in the economy. Private business group
(63.3%) and civil society group (54.9%) believe that the
level of competition is high, whereas, those from the
government 44.4 % describe the level as moderate. About 59%
of the respondents asserted that the level of competition in
the telecommunication sector is high,he concluded.
The news item can also be
viewed at:
http://observer.gm/
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