7Update
EnewsLetter Vol. II
Project
Progress
In
the wake of the current wind of privatisation and liberalisation prevailing
in the developing world, an appropriate competition regime is required
to ensure that domestic manufacturers’ interests are safeguarded,
in addition to protecting consumers from abuses emanating from anti-competitive
practices, both at the local and national levels. Most of the world
has already waken up to this reality, with more and more countries adopting
a competition legislation.
The
situation in Africa is no exception. With many countries having adopted
competition legislations recently, there is a great demand for capacity
building on the subject both in the government circles, and the academic
and research fraternity.
CUTS
has been associated with research based advocacy work on competition
policy and law in India, right from the inception of the debate on the
need for an appropriate competition regime in the country. Over the
period of its involvement with competition policy and law in the country,
CUTS realised the need to actively associate the civil society as a
‘catalyst’ to this discourse. Adding a multi-stakeholder
dimension to the process of evolving a functional competition regime.
Subsequently,
CUTS has developed a model for engagement in multi-country projects
on competition policy and law, involving multiple stakeholders, which
has been applied to various countries in Asia and Africa.
The
initiative entitled, ‘Capacity building on Competition Policy
in Select Countries of Eastern and Southern Africa’, is a sequel
to this approach, and popularly referred to as the 7Up3 Project. Though
the preparatory phase of the project began in January 2005, the formal
launching of the project was done in end March 2005 at Entebbe, Uganda.
The project is being implemented with co-operation of selected CSOs
from each of the seven project countries: Botswana, Ethiopia, Malawi,
Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Uganda.
Keeping
in view the specific research and advocacy components of the project,
one research partner and one advocacy partner was selected to carry
out specific research and advocacy activities in the project countries.
In some of the countries, however, both the research and advocacy activities
had to be handled by one partner, as getting separate CSOs to shoulder
different activities proved difficult, and often led to delays.
The
research partners started their activities by developing a base paper
on the competition scenario in each of the project countries, which
was later presented at the Launch Meeting, and adequately discussed
therein.
In
the months of May-June, the first round of national consultation meetings
were held in five of the seven project countries. The purpose of these
consultations were:
-
To
establish a ‘core group’ of key stakeholders, by making
them aware of the objectives and anticipated outcomes of the project.
-
To sensitise this core group (National Reference group or NRG) on
the subject, and establish a method of periodical consultation for
inputs to the research process and the advocacy methodology.
-
To discuss the salient features of the base paper on the competition
scenario in each of the project countries.
The
NRG meetings went off well in the project countries, and the following
important points emerged:
-
There
was a need to make stakeholders comprehend the relationship between
competition policy and consumer protection – i.e., how an
effective competition policy could lead to consumer protection.
-
A need was felt to make the engagement with the NRG members continuous.
This would help in enhancing their awareness on the subject, and
also keep their interest alive to associate readily with the project.
-
A
need was felt by the members of the NRGs, to look at competition
(or its restriction) in specific sectors of the economy, with greater
details.
There
were delays in moving the project forward in Namibia and Mozambique.
While
in Namibia, the unavailability of a consumer association to undertake
the advocacy activities led to the project being stuck for a while,
the reason for delay in Mozambique was on account of the fact that the
research partner in Mozambique, was not able to deliver the preliminary
paper, and kept stretching the deadline.
It
is expected that the assumption of both research and advocacy activities
by NEPRU in Namibia would bring the project back on schedule in the
country. The national consultation meeting in Namibia has been scheduled
on August 16, 2005, and a tentative NRG has also been constituted.
In
Mozambique on the other hand the project team is making every effort
to get an alternative partner for the project, and is in the process
of consultation with various civil society organisations and other acquaintances.
There was also a visit by a representative from the CUTS Africa Office
based in Lusaka, Zambia to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, in order
to identify prospective partners. It is expected that an alternative
project partner would be identified in Mozambique soon.
Some
of the activities of the partners worth mentioning over this period
were:
-
Preparation
of brief NRG meeting reports by the partners in Botswana, Ethiopia,
Malawi and Mauritius. ‘Press Releases’ on the NRG were
also prepared by the partners, some of which were captured in leading
newspapers of respective countries.
-
Development
of two Policy Briefs by the advocacy partner in Mauritius, Institute
for Consumer Protection (ICP).
-
Article on, ‘Competition in the Malawian Tobacco Sector’,
by Malawi Economic Justice Network, the advocacy partner in Malawi.
-
Article on: ‘Competition in the Banking Sector in Mauritius’,
by the research partner of Mauritius, Faulty of Social Studies and
Humanities, University of Mauritius.
-
Article
in the newspaper by the research-cum-advocacy partner in Uganda,
Consumer Education Trust of Uganda (CONSENT) and the advocacy partner
from Mauritius, ICP.
-
Project partners sent newspaper articles from some of the project
countries.
The details about
the project are available in the project web page, www.cuts-international.org/7up3.htm.
News from project
countries………
| COUNTRY
|
NEWS
|
| BOTSWANA
 |
Government
mulls regulating LPG prices
Government
is considering removing LPG from the free market and regulating
its price. The move comes in the wake of several factors, especially
the frequent price increases and price discrimination among dealers
in the capital.
More…
|
Call
for intra-Africa trade
Botswana
has expressed its commitment to stimulate establishment of joint
business ventures with Ghana. This was in response to Accra’s
call to find ways to trade within the continent, in wake of the
current trend, where African products losing their legitimate
share in the markets.
More… |
| Botswana-Namibia
for closer ties
The
Namibian President has emphasised the need to intensify Windhoek-Gaborone
trade links. He suggested various means to enhance commercial,
educational and cultural ties between the two countries. He stressed
that both countries should work hand-in-hand to achieve the targets
set by South African Development Community (SADC).
More… |
| ETHIOPIA
 |
Improving
interconnectivity in Africa
During
the course of a four-day international workshop in Addis Ababa,
detailed prospects of a project connecting countries from the
tip of southern Africa to the Sudan were discussed. The aim of
the workshop was to seek solutions to problems of quality, capacity
and delay in satellite communication, as well as the possible
extension of an optical fiber highway, which is currently being
installed in Ethiopia, to the neighbouring countries Sudan and
Djibouti.
More… |
| A
long way to go for Ethiopia
Experts
observe that even with debt relief and recent increases in aid,
a lot would be needed to develop the requisite infrastructure
and generate sustainable growth in Ethiopia. Private sector development
and improvement of investment climate are being looked at as the
possible measure to ensure this. The flower industry has shown
a way forward…
More… |
| MALAWI
 |
Mobile
markets boost cross-border trade
In
a move to empower people to buy and sell commodities at reasonable
prices without being exploited, the Malawian government has initiated
a mobile cross-border market, which keeps shifting camps from
one place to another along the Zambia-Malawi border. It attracts
traders from the three countries of Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania,
and consumers get to choose from a wide variety of goods.
More… |
| Malawi
budget ‘to trigger inflation’
There
are strong fears among economic analysts that Malawi’s pending
budget (2005-06), will push inflation further upwards, raising
commodity prices to unsustainable levels especially for the impoverished
masses. 75 percent of the country’s population, surviving
on less than one dollar a day, would have to bear the brunt of
this, the most!
More… |
| MAURITIUS
 |
Need
for food standard monitoring felt
The
Ministry of Health, Mauritius seized imported bottled water from
Malaysia, and stopped it from entering the market, as it was found
to be contaminated. Consumer organisations have urged the government
for immediately setting up an agency to monitor the food standards
in the country, and help safeguard health of consumers.
More… |
| Sugar
Protocol: a big blow to producers
Mauritius
has expressed its dismay at the announcement of the 39 percent
drop in sugar export prices by the EU. This will have a dramatic
effect on the sector and the people dependent on it, in all the
Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries.
More… |
| US
quotas on Chinese textiles bring back smiles
Mauritius’
textile industry welcomed a decision by the United States to impose
quotas on certain textile items in order to counter the surge
in imports from cheap producers in China. With Mauritius’
garment exports to US declining, the quotas have rekindled hopes
among exporters of regaining their slice of the US market.
More… |
| MOZAMBIQUE
 |
USA
Mozambique boost trade ties
A
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) signed between
the United Sates and Mozambique, would help further US-Mozambican
bilateral trade and investment relationship. A US-Mozambican Council
on Trade and Investment will be formed, to plan and execute activities
on various issues of common concern.
More… |
Support
for CFA proposals
Mozambique
has pledged its support for the ‘Commission For Africa’
(CFA) report on poverty reduction in Africa. The Mozambican President
asserted that the Commission’s commitment to address debt
relief, doubling development aid, and removal of trade barriers
coincided with the economic and social development objectives
of the government.
|
| Mozambican
Cashew on track to revival
The
‘Zambique’ brand of Mozambican cashew nut was released
recently for its first export sale to a US buyer. However, the
industry has a long way to go before it could regain its earlier
stature, which was badly affected by World Bank’s blind
pursuit of free trade ideology.
More… |
| NAMIBIA
 |
Government
keen on transfer pricing
Namibia’s
national budgetary system has been undergoing reforms since the
mid-90s. The Government has put great emphasis on improving the
efficiency of its tax collection process. One such measure is
to introduce a ‘transfer pricing’ legislation, to
curb malpractices by multinational companies.
More… |
Unfair
competition for local businesses
The
Northern business community has blamed the Namibia Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (NCCI) for not protecting them against unfair
competition from foreign traders, especially the Chinese. They
have called on the NCCI to address critical issues affecting the
business community.
|
| Reducing
beef industry imbalance
More
than a decade after Namibia achieved independence, meat from the
northern communal areas (NCA) have failed to gain access to the
European markets, unlike meat produced from the southern commercial
farms. The Meat Board feels that the animals north of the ‘cordon
fence’ are rarely vaccinated, and are therefore prone to
the dreaded Foot and Mouth Disease. In order to counter this,
the northern farmers have proposed a system of ‘self-quarantine’.
More… |
| UGANDA
 |
Celtel
sues Uganda Telecom
Mobile
telephone giants, Celtel and Uganda Telecom (UTl), are locked
up in a legal battle over interconnection fees. Celtel’s
claim that the two companies have utilised each other’s
services and infrastructure for connecting telephone calls across
their networks for a cost, which UTl has ignored.
More… |
| Postal
sector gears up to face competitors
Postal
managers from the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA)
member countries have expressed grave concern over the declining
turnovers of the postal companies, with the advent of internet
and mobile phones. Posta Uganda, has shown the way to deal with
this changing business environment by striking airtime retail
partnerships with mobile phone companies.
More… |
| Migereko
woos investors on key air route
Trade
Minister Daudi Migereko has called investors to invest in the
Entebbe-Nairobi air route to reduce transport costs. He observed
that Kenyan Airways is taking advantage of its monopoly position
in the route, and adversely affecting tourism and business prospects
for Uganda.
More… |
| NEPAD/OECD
Roundtable shows the way
The
need to address obstacles for more active private sector participation
in infrastructure was the subject of particular attention during
the recently concluded NEPAD/OECD investment roundtable held at
Entebbe. Discussion focused on resolving issues pertaining to
regulatory capacity constraints and lack of adapted financing
mechanisms. Uganda is keen to provide congenial atmospheres to
encourage investment in the country, and is advancing to ensure
this outcome.
More…
|
| |
|
