Competition Policy and Law in Bangladesh
Competition Policy and Law in Bangladesh
Objective: The objective of the program is to provide technical assistance to the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to undertake competition advocacy, public awareness and training about competition issues. The competition
Background: Bangladesh does not currently have any clearly defined competition policy at the macro level or any sector specific policy that addresses competition issues. The government does not have any institutional mechanism to review and administer existing and proposed policies that affect competition or regulate business activities that are anti-competitive. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Ordinance (MRTPO) was promulgated in 1970 by the Government of Pakistan. Since independence of Bangladesh, neither the government nor the private sector has attempted to invoke the law.
The GoB has indicated its intent to pass a competition law in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. In this connection, during the design phase of the Competition Policy Review component of the Private Sector Development Support Project (PSDSP), a joint WB-DFID team of experts held a number of meetings in Dhaka and Chittagong with a wide range of public and private sector officials, including representatives of government ministries and departments, academic and policy-research institutions, industry and trade associations, business and commercial law firms, civil society and non-governmental organizations.
The team of experts proposed a number of steps to assist the Government of Bangladesh address competition related issues in the domestic economy:
a) Engage in consultations with private and public sectors, identify, and agree on three or four critical sectors where competition assessments and regulatory impact analysis should be conducted by Bangladesh based consultants/academics and policy-research institutions using methods discussed at the proposed workshop. b) In collaboration with think
Objective: The objective of the program is to provide technical assistance to the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to undertake competition advocacy, public awareness and training about competition issues. The competition
Background: Bangladesh does not currently have any clearly defined competition policy at the macro level or any sector specific policy that addresses competition issues. The government does not have any institutional mechanism to review and administer existing and proposed policies that affect competition or regulate business activities that are anti-competitive. The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Ordinance (MRTPO) was promulgated in 1970 by the Government of Pakistan. Since independence of Bangladesh, neither the government nor the private sector has attempted to invoke the law.
The GoB has indicated its intent to pass a competition law in its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. In this connection, during the design phase of the Competition Policy Review component of the Private Sector Development Support Project (PSDSP), a joint WB-DFID team of experts held a number of meetings in Dhaka and Chittagong with a wide range of public and private sector officials, including representatives of government ministries and departments, academic and policy-research institutions, industry and trade associations, business and commercial law firms, civil society and non-governmental organizations.
The team of experts proposed a number of steps to assist the Government of Bangladesh address competition related issues in the domestic economy:
a) Engage in consultations with private and public sectors, identify, and agree on three or four critical sectors where competition assessments and regulatory impact analysis should be conducted by Bangladesh based consultants/academics and policy-research institutions using methods discussed at the proposed workshop. b) In collaboration with think