ASEAN will organise the 5th ASEAN Competition Conference (ACC) betweenJune 4 and 5 in Ho Chi Minh City themed “Advancing Competition Policyand Law Post-2015: Progress, Opportunities and Challenges”, said theASEAN Secretariat on June 3.

Conferenceattendees include representatives of competition-related governmentalbodies, non-governmental organisations, business associations,academicians and businessmen. A wide range of topics will be discussed,such as the emerging competition landscape in the ASEAN, how to foster acompetitive and competition-aware region as well as a strategy forpost-2015.

The conference is expected to buildregional awareness of the significance of Competition Policy and Law(CPL) towards strengthening the bloc’s economic integration, given faircompetition is essential to speed up regional market integrationfollowing the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the endof 2015.

The 5th ACC will be hosted by theVietnam Competition Authority (VCA) and co-sponsored by the EconomicCooperation Support Programme (AECSP), the ASEAN-Australia-New ZealandFree Trade Area (AANZFTA) and the German Federal Ministry for EconomicCooperation and Development (BMZ).

Since 2011,the ACC has been held annually to provide a viable platform for expertsand relevant stakeholders to share best practices and discuss emergingissues on CPL in the region.

The 4th ACC took place in the Philippines last year themed “Building blocks for Effective Enforcement of CPL”.-VNA