Effective Competition Frameworks: Enabling Competition and Innovation with a Global Mindset (Program Synthesis)

Panel Summary

This Panel brought together speakers from diverse backgrounds, jurisdictions and professions leading to a rich cross disciplinary discussion and was moderated by Professor David Evans (Global Economics Group / Jevons Institute). He set the stage for the discussion by noting that there is robust innovation by local and Chinese players in the APAC region and encouraged the Panel to address the issues arising from the digital economy, and to assess how different jurisdictions are attempting to address similar problems, and if there are opportunities for the jurisdictions to learn from each other.

Some relevant policy recommendations emerged from this panel. Illustratively, Geeta Gouri (formerly, CCI) emphasized the need for understanding and respecting the market logic and being wary of the per se approach in dominance cases, Yong Lim (Seoul National University AI Policy Initiative) brought to the forefront the need for careful institutional design and the need for reliance of economic evidence. He also spoke about the need to build skill and expertise in crafting proper remedies in competition matters. Similarly, the need for using consumer welfare standard as the guiding principle for regulating digital platforms and a word of caution against over regulation, as well as regulatory fragmentation, also emerged.

Jeff Paine (Asia Internet Coalition) cast a spotlight on the issue of rising techno nationalism in the south east A