Another step toward a fair market environment

The State Administration for Market Regulation recently published the Anti-Monopoly Law amendment draft to solicit public opinion. That means the law that has been in force for 11 years will be amended.

Many local governments in China, obsessed with such economic indexes as "growth rate", "economic scale" and "profit", have focused more on some industrial policies to ensure economic growth while doing enough to build a fair market environment.

To facilitate high-quality development, the country must allow the market to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources, while taking steps to ensure fair competition. To this end, the country is trying to establish a set of rules that mirrors the international trade and investment rules system.

And by further opening up the economy and creating a fair competition environment, China must promote innovation-driven high-quality development.

In 2016, the State Council, China's Cabinet, called for the establishment of a fair competition review system for various industrial and investment policies. The idea was to check the introduction of policies and measures that exclude or limit competition, and to gradually revise or abolish regulations and practices that impede fair competition.

The enforcement of the Anti-Monopoly Law in 2008 and the growing use of the internet for business drastically changed the market environment.

And the existing legal clauses have become somewhat obsolete given the changes that have taken place. Also, the discriminatory nature of ownership access has become increasingly unacceptable to the market, underscoring the need for further opening up the economy to break the industrial monopoly. With the full implementation of the negative list system for market access, the government has gradually revised or abolished the regulations that come in the way of a national unified market and fair competition, thus laying the foundation for a comprehensive revision of the Anti-Monopoly Law.

The draft amended to the Anti-Monopoly Law imposes penalties on illegal activities or unfair competition online. Since a market system that promotes fair competition is key to ensuring high-quality products, the country must enact a scientific law and promote its strict enforcement to establish an open and fair market environment.

-21st Century Business Herald