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Mr Ngwenya

Tinashe Makichi in Livingstone, Zambia
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has stressed the need for member states to effectively implement competition policies within their economies to create competitive economic environments.
Competition policies highlight Governments’ need to take measures to promote competitive market structures and behaviour. It therefore encompasses within it a system of competition laws.

COMESA secretary-general Mr Sindiso Ngwenya told a regional sensitisation workshop for business reporters in Zambia yesterday that strong competition policies are not just a luxury to be enjoyed by rich countries but a real necessity for those thriving to create democratic market economies.

“Member states must effectively enforce competition policies and laws because competitive market forces ensure that there are efficient levels of investment in discovering new production technologies, new production processes and new products. Competitive markets promote economic efficiency.

“To achieve this competition laws and policies must be enforced effectively as competition also leads to innovation and the production of high quality goods,” said Mr Ngwenya.

He said while philosophical arguments are many and varied, competition policies are there to help nations achieve economic prosperity and increase the welfare of society.

Today Governments are appreciating that competition policies have a key role to play in creating conditions of governance for both the national, regional and global market place.

“It is high time that member states should realise that competition policies are the best instruments available in order to ensure that regional integration remains a source of advancing welfare for the citizens and firms those countries.

“Markets need to be protected against the creation of dominant positions, cartels and abuses of power,” Mr Ngwenya said.

“Protectionism is not the way to go but local companies must produce products of high quality otherwise protecting them would a secret way of short-changing the consumers.”

He said competition is not an end in itself or something useful only for domestic economies.

It is a tool for member states to react and cope with the changes that they are facing at the international level and that are globalisation, technological innovation and trade liberalisation.

Mr Ngwenya said this is an opportunity for member states to adapt to domestic rules to the new regional and global environment.

“We are all aware of the parameters of this new trading order. It involves a major expansion of the market economy, markets integration due to cross border operations, deregulation and privatisation, global players adapting and devising new cross border strategies to profit from all this and finally an important increase in international competition cases,” said Mr Ngwenya.

He said member states needs to turn away from outdated ideas that advocates for unchallenged domestic markets.

He said COMESA believes that competition policies are an essential element of an open market economy.

“Our member states have since moved from the old forms of industrial intervention by Governments, import substitution, and to a greater extent a belief in national champions,” Mr Ngwenya said