Competition advocacy has played an important role in the Asia-Pacific. The COVID-19 crisis has only increased its importance, but it has also shown advocacy changing to focus not only on the benefits of competition broadly but more specifically in the design policy actions. This can be expected to continue as the economic recovery and the green transition take off. The active role of competition authorities in the context of the digital economy in the region provides a pathway for agencies.
By Ruben Maximiano, Wouter Meester & Leni Papa[1]
I. INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an economic recession in most countries around the world with global GDP declining by 3.4 percent in 2020 (OECD, 2021[2]). Governments have implemented far-reaching measures with the objective to contain the effects of the virus, mitigate its economic impact and boost economic recovery. Such measures have been diverse in scale, scope, and objectives. For instance, they have focused on specific industries or companies or on the economy as a whole and have, intentionally or not, temporary or long-lasting effects on the economy. Competition authorities, through their advocacy efforts, can play an important role in ensuring that these measures lead to a faster and more sustained recovery. Firstly, their expertise in how markets function positions them well to provide support in the development, implementation and phasing out of government measures by avoiding or minimizing com
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