Events

MINSK, 30 May (BelTA) – The 48^th session of the CIS Interstate Antimonopoly Policy Council timed to the 25^th anniversary since its foundation took place in Minsk on 30 May, BelTA has learned.

Belarusian Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade Minister Vladimir Koltovich underlined: “Violations of antimonopoly regulations are becoming international. Our common market of the Eurasian Economic Union member states and the CIS member states provides for universal approaches to ascertaining the facts of violations of competition laws. Today we need results of the common practices in dealing with violations of antimonopoly laws in order to learn fast and promptly amend the legislation. The culture of antimonopoly behavior and the competitive behavior of our companies on the market is the most important thing for us.”

Belarus has already borrowed the best practices in this sphere. The legislation, which will come into force on 3 August, already contains the best practices: warnings have been introduced as a softer approach to dealing with violations. “We have borrowed the Russian practice of setting prices for medications,” said the official. “The head of state has backed the pilot project on setting prices and registering prices for oncological medications, cardiovascular medications and other ones. During today’s session we will also present a report on studying the market of medical equipment and medical products,” said Vladimir Koltovich.

Artak Shaboyan, Chairman of the CIS Interstate Antimonopoly Policy Council, Chairman of the State Economic Competition Protection Council of Armenia, stated that the agenda was tightly packed. “The participants will present the most remarkable events, which happened over the last 12 months in the sphere of competition in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Today we are going to hear out reports on the role of the competition policy and antimonopoly agencies. Developing the competition policy in conditions of digital economy is one of the key matters. All the relevant government agencies across the globe are interested in it,” he stated. The operation of the staff on the joint investigation of antimonopoly legislation violations will also be discussed.

The telecommunication market is one of the important industries the CIS Interstate Antimonopoly Policy Council has examined. Thanks to Russian and Kazakh efforts to investigate violations of antimonopoly legislation roaming prices have been reduced by two to four times.

The CIS Interstate Antimonopoly Policy Council has also carried out investigations on the market of oil products, exchange trade, retail chains, and the medications market.

During the 48^th session of the CIS Interstate Antimonopoly Policy Council the Belarusian Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade Ministry and the State Economic Competition Protection Commission of Armenia signed a memorandum of cooperation. The Belarusian ministry and the Competition Council of Moldova signed another memorandum of cooperation.

The key purpose of the CIS Interstate Antimonopoly Policy Council is to pursue a coordinated antimonopoly policy and encourage competition, prevent the monopolistic work of commercial entities, which damages economic interests of the CIS states. The council sessions are arranged to discuss the latest trends in the development of antimonopoly legislation, share information about the most interesting cases in enforcing the law for the sake of working out common approaches to developing antimonopoly legislation.