By Hlengiwe Ndlovu | 2018-06-19
THREE experts from the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission (TFTC) are in the country to train Swaziland Competition Commission staff and their board of commissioners on competition law, fair trade practices and other issues that pertain to the Commission’s mandate.
The TFTC experts include Deputy Director in the Department of PlanningTzu-Shun Hu, Inspector in the Department of Fair Competition Martin Hsu and Jishyan Hwu who is inspector in the department of manufacturing industry competition.
SCC board chairperson Sibusiso Motsa explained that the training came as a result of the 20th Joint Ministerial Conference on Economic and Technical Cooperation between Eswatini and Taiwan where the Commission submitted a proposal to cooperate with the TFTC in a number of areas.
Motsa indicated that SCC staff and their board need continuous training on competition and consumer law to sharpen their expertise and to be upbeat on industry trends.
Facilitating in the first session ‘monopoly and competition: which one is better’ Deputy Director Hu summed it up with a comment: “Competition is usually better than monopoly, monopoly can only be good when there is efficiency’.
He also touched on the many facets of monopoly and competition, including the difference between market and monopoly power.
He explained that market power is reminiscent of enterprises with a high market share while monopoly power is manifested where there is both a high market share existing alongside entry barriers in the marketplace. Hu further explained that monopolies are not always illegal per se as there are many reasons why firms end up enjoying a monopolistic status. The deputy director made an example of the cement industry back in Taiwan which was at some stage subject to TFTC investigations meant to ascertain whether they had abused their monopoly power. Investigations are inconclusive to date because the TFTC had no proof of the allegations as current data show that the cement firm had tightened its efficiencies to increase profit.
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