By Monica Tambala

Lilongwe, September 13, Mana:  Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) has expressed optimism on the2022 Annual Competition and Economic Regulation (ACER) Week that is currently underway in Salima, Malawi.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana)Tuesday in Lilongwe, Public Relations Officer (PRO) for CFTC, Innocent Helema said that the conference, which is the 7th annual event running from September 12 to 16, 2022 provides a platform for different countries to come together to discuss on different issues.

“CFTC officials and officials from other local regulators will understand more about competition issues and build relationships with other institutions from other countries,” he said.

In a press release by the Acting Executive Director for CFTC, Apoche Itimu, the Commission said that it was honoured to co-host the ACER week alongside COMESA Competition Commission (CCC) and the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Competition Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED).

“As part of enhancing its collaboration and cooperation with international bodies in the enforcement of competition and consumer protection laws and capacity building, the commission is honored to co-host the Acer week which will include three professional training programmes;

key concepts in economic regulation, competition economics and law with illustrations on the application of theories and principles. Issues of direct interest to competition authorities, economic regulators and industrial development practitioners in Africa will be discussed,” the statement reads.

According to Itimu, competition authorities and other regulators would have a platform to share knowledge, keep abreast of key developments across the region and build networks for collaboration between agencies.

Commenting on the same, an economic expert, Hamissi Allie hailed the conference as one that would aid in imparting knowledge to agencies and stakeholders and a platform to liaise towards eliminating all forms of market failures and monopolies across borders as well as create fair trading and competitive markets.

“The international regulatory bodies give CFTC an opportunity to learn and share knowledge, common problems and possible solutions to creating a fair trading and competitive market in their respective countries which is handy to how the commission can speed up and effectively deal with different local cases.

In a separate interview, Milward Tobias, a guru in the economic sector highlighted that the liberalized economic system that Malawi practices has some elements of protectionism in some sectors which cannot withstand industrial competition.

“In the liberalized set up, we see elements that are suggestive of anti-competitive behaviours which are perpetuated by associations like those in the banking industry, passenger transport industry, tobacco buying companies and so on which the commission is responsible for ensuring anti-competitive and unfair trading practices,” he said. CFTC was established under the act of 1998 of fair trading and competition mandated to regulate, control and enhance competition among the traders.

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