http://www.philippinechamber.com/
MANILA (Mabuhay) — The country’s largest business organization, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), has urged Congress to fast-track Competition Law in order to prevent unethical business and trade practices, anti-competitive mergers, and abuse of market power.
PCCI President Alfredo Yao said the Competition Law will have a significant role for the country upon entering the ASEAN integration in 2015, hence the group hopes that both Senate and House of Representatives will soon approve the pending bill.
“We hope that when it goes back to work for its May 5 to June 13 session, the 16th Congress would give top priority to approving competition bills now pending before it” Yao said.
“The economy needs a competition law to upgrade the country’s competitiveness and maximize the benefits of integrating the economy with those of other ASEAN economies by 2015. If we give our neighbors a difficult time to do business here, they will also give us a hard time accessing the ASEAN market of 600 million consumers,” the PCCI chief stressed.
He noted that the said law will further improve the local business environment here as the law will allow a more open playing field for investment, innovation, and pricing.
This will also attract new investors to enter the Philippine market and current market players to expand here.
“A competition law would be a landmark legislation whose significance to the economy would be underscored once the AEC and other economic partnership agreements come into play,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Fair Competition Act of 2013 introduced by Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV in the Senate and Representative Mark Villar in the House of Representatives have already gone through first reading.
The PCCI is one of the business organizations in the country that has been pushing for the immediate ratification and implementation of Competition Law in the Philippines.(MNS)