By Emma Kakololo
WINDHOEK
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, said last week that government has made progress in its efforts to implement the Competition Act, and all that remained was some logistical and administrative arrangements before the Act could be promulgated. The minister briefed participants at a workshop on Competition Policy and Law organized by the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) and the Consumer Unit and Trust Society (CUTS).
“The Competitive policy and Competitive law in Namibia are governed by the Competition Act, 2003 (Act No.2 of 2003), which will be implemented in the next few months,” he said
“Commissioners have been appointed, and a property has been leased to serve as the office of the Namibian Competition Commission. We are now working towards the appointment of a new chairperson.” Namibia’s economic competitiveness was ranked 88th out of 128 countries in the world, just behind Botswana which was ranked 83, according to the African Competitiveness Report jointly published by the African Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. The results were disappointing compared to some of the other 29 African countries that were examined against the global market. Countries such as Tunisia (29), South Africa (46), Mauritius (58), and Egypt (65) emerged among the best economic performers with regard to competitiveness.
“Competition is a good thing, and we should all embrace it as a very important aspect in the development and growth of our industries,” he urged.
The purpose of the Act is to enhance the promotion of and to safeguard competition in the country in order to promote efficiency, adaptability and development of the country’s economy; and also to expand opportunities for participation by Namibians in the world markets while recognizing the role of foreign competition in the country; as well as to provide consumers with competitive prices and product choices, amongst others.
In addition, the Act would also make certain restrictive business practices illegal such as restrictive horizontal practices resulting from agreements between firms operating at the same level in the product chain, producing competing goods and services. Such restrictions, he said, were important as horizontal acquisitions were clearly the type of activities which contributed most directly to concentration of economic power and which were likely to lead to dominant position of market power, thereby reducing competition altogether.
“It is not only the consumer who will benefit from competition policy and law, but the entire economy, too, stands to gain enormously from protection against the destructive operations of cartels and abuse of dominant positions by monopolies.
“Namibia heavily relies on imports which are often subjected to distorted pricing by import cartels. Similarly, domestic firms – for example, import cartels – often penalize the consumer with higher-than-necessary prices and other forms of abuse of dominance.”