Phase-I Country Report

National Reference Group Meetings

Draft Phase-I Report

Phase-I Culmination Meeting

Project Management

Project Related Travel

III. Outreach

Newsletters

Bill Blowup

Briefing Kit: Competition Law & Policy Made Easy

CompetitiOnline Forum

IV. Impact of the Project in the First Year

V. Problems, Solutions & Other Changes

VI. Plan for the Next Quarter

VII. Annexures

I. INTRODUCTION

This is the 4^th quarterly report of the project titled “Comparative Study of Competition Regimes of Select Developing Countries of the Commonwealth” being supported by the Department for International Development, UK. The project, popularly known as 7-Up, is being implemented by CUTS, Jaipur. Its purpose is to do a comparative study of competition regimes in seven developing countries of the Commonwealth. The countries which have been chosen for the study are:

India
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Kenya
South Africa
Tanzania
Zambia

The main objectives of the Project are:

· To conduct evaluation of existing competition legislation and its implementation on few basic principles such as budgets, composition and structure of the authority;

· To identify typical problems and suggest solutions, including on the basis of practices elsewhere;

· To suggest ways forward to strengthen existing legislation and institutions dealing with competition issues;

· To assess capacity building needs of the government, its agencies and the civil society;

· To develop strategies for building expertise among the competition agency officials, practitioners and civil society;

· To help build constituencies for promoting competition culture by actively involving civil society and other influential entities during this exercise; and

· To create an advocacy group at national and international levels to pursue the necessary and required reforms.

7-Up Project is running in its fifth quarter now. In the first quarter of the Project, primarily the preliminary activities were completed. Partners were identified in each of the seven project countries. An international advisory body named as Project Advisory Committee was formed to guide the project implementation and an Operational Strategy Note was prepared to give a micro picture of the process and methodology involved over the period of two years of the Project duration. As a first step to achieve the goals of the project, the partners prepared a preliminary country paper to give a brief description of the existing competition law and other regulations, market position, socio-economic characteristics, etc. in each of these countries. A comparative analysis of these papers was made by Prof. Rakesh Basant, the core-researcher of the Project as well as at CUTS.

In the second quarter, the Project was formally launched at a meeting held in Jaipur, India in the month of December 2000. The meeting was attended by the project partners and various experts, competition practitioners, former and present executives of various international and regional organisations and competition authorities of different countries, including Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Zambia, India.

The research methodology and strategies for the implementation of the Project were discussed and a comprehensive questionnaire including questions on issues related to institutional framework of competition authority in the project countries was prepared. Guidelines were set for the formation of a National Reference Group comprising of various stakeholders for the advocacy component of the Project. A preliminary list of proposed members of NRG for India was prepared by CUTS and was circulated to all partners in other countries as a model to enable them to prepare lists for their respective countries.

The third quarter, possibly the most crucial quarter in the first phase of the project, covered activities related to research, formation of the National Reference Group and preparation of the Phase-I country report. The researchers got the questionnaires filled from the concerned authority and collected all the relevant data. This data was then put into a draft country report for which a format was suggested by the core researcher of the Project and was sent to the partners. This report was to be discussed at the NRG meeting. The partners finalised the members of their NRG, which included representation from all stakeholders. The dates of the NRG meetings were also decided during this period.

The previous quarter i.e. the fourth quarter, was the last quarter of Phase I of the Project. During this period, NRG meetings were organised and the Phase-I country reports were prepared in each project country. These Phase-I country reports were compiled and collated to form Draft Phase-I Report. The Phase-I culmination meeting was also held in the first week of September. This marked the beginning of Phase-II of the Project. The following is a brief report on the progress of the project activities during its fourth quarter, i.e. for the period June-August 2001 and also includes a brief report on the Phase-I Culmination Meeting of the project held in the first week of September 2001.

BACK TO TOP

II. PROGRESS OF THE PROJECT

Phase-I Country Report

Based on the field survey and survey of the existing legislation, the country researchers prepared the draft Phase-I country report. This report compiled the data, which was collected by the researchers on the basis of the questionnaire addressed to the Competition Authority of the respective country. The researchers were given a particular format for preparing these reports and such format was prepared by Prof. Rakesh Basant, the core researcher of the Project. The format was sent to the Advisory Consultants Team for their comments and thereafter, it was sent to all partners and researchers for being adopted for formulation of the reports.

The draft Phase-I country report was discussed at the National Reference Group (NRG) meeting organised in these countries and was revised (by some countries) after incorporating the comments that emerged at the NRG meetings.

The revised version of the draft reports or the original form, where it was not revised, was sent to Prof. Rakesh Basant for preparing the synthesis report of these Phase-I country reports. Prof. Basant has also sent his comments and suggestions on these draft reports to the researchers and they are in the process of incorporating his comments in the draft reports.

The draft Phase-I Country Reports are also available at www.cuts-international.org/7-up-country-report-index.htm

BACK TO TOP

National Reference Group Meetings

In the month of June 2001, all the country partners organised their National Reference Group (NRG) Meeting. These NRG meetings were half-day meetings and were also attended by CUTS’ staff. The details of these visits are available later in this report.

The NRG deliberated on the inputs prepared in each country. The draft phase-I country report was presented and discussed at the meeting. In some cases, reports were also sent in advance to the members in order to have more useful and focussed discussion. The reports would be revised after incorporation of the comments that emerged at these meetings. Some of the countries have already incorporated these comments and the rest are in the process of doing so.

Interestingly, the deliberations in these meetings were not limited to the country reports. The participants discussed all the issues that they thought important to instill a healthy competition culture in the economy. In all these countries, NRGs were of the opinion that the competition law should be able to address their development concerns and protect their domestic industry from unfair competition from the TNCs. They were equally concerned about the effectiveness of domestic competition law to take care of anti-competitive practices in the globalising environment. However, they stopped short of recommending a multilateral competition framework, as they were not very sure of the implications of such a framework.

The NRGs also felt that it was essential to have a good advocacy and support base to enforce the laws effectively. At the same time they recognised the need for a strong consumer movement in ensuring that. They also recognised that the consumer movement in these countries (with the exception of India) was rather weak, and needs to be strengthened.

A detailed analysis of the reports of these NRG meetings is attached vide Annexure A.

BACK TO TOP

Draft Phase I Report

The Phase-I Country Reports were sent to Prof. Rakesh Basant who compiled and collated them and prepared the Draft Phase-I Synthesis Report. Given the differences across countries and the three general issues raised above, this synthesis report pools together the analysis/information contained in the seven phase-I country reports. The aim of this report is to gain insights into the capability of the existing institutional framework for the enforcement of competition regime and the links between economic development and competition policy. In order to do that it focuses on two questions:

· How the structural and policy differences affect competition policy requirements?

· Given these requirements, what are the emerging substantive and administrative needs of competition law?

The rest of the paper is divided into six sections. The next section summarises the socio-economic profile of the 7-Up countries to provide a developmental context to the subsequent discussions. The public policies adopted in the project countries are discussed in Section 3. Given the development needs and public policies, Section 4 attempts a broad-brush evaluation of competition policy related requirements in the project countries. Some inadequacies relating to the scope of competition law are summarized in Section 5. Issues relating to capabilities of the competition authority and the associated administrative framework are discussed in Section 6. The final section makes some brief concluding observations.

The comparisons attempted in the paper are quite tentative. It is difficult to derive the various nuances of the ‘context’ of competition policy in each project country. The report was presented at the Phase-I culmination meeting of the project and the gaps would be filled up after taking into consideration the views and suggestions that emerged at the meeting.

The draft Phase I report is available on www.cuts-international.org/7-up-p1-cr-compiled.doc

BACK TO TOP

Phase-I Culmination Meeting

The Phase-I Culmination Meeting of the Project was held in Goa, India during 7-8^th September 2001. The purpose of the meeting was to take stock of Phase-I and chalk out a plan of action for Phase II. The meeting involved:

· sharing learnings from the phase-I country report of each project country;

· discussion on the compiled and comparative analysis of all these reports;

· lowlights & highlights of the Phase-I; and

· brainstorming on shaping Phase-II

The agenda of the meeting is being annexed vide Annex B and a detailed report of the proceedings of the meeting is being prepared and would be put on our WebSite soon. The following is a brief note on the main points:

International experts from various organisations such as the UNCTAD, WTO, OECD, European Commission, World Bank, Consumers International, International Development Research Centre also participated as resource persons, besides partners and researchers, to take stock of the progress of the project and share their experiences about the subject.

The Meeting presented the results of the first year of the Project which examined and compared the domestic competition regimes of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania. The study focused on how the differences in economic structure and policies of these countries affect their competition policy requirements. The project revealed the importance of a vibrant consumer movement for the meaningful enforcement of competition law. However, most of the project countries lack consumer awareness of these issues.

What emerged as a very crucial recommendation, is that the consumer movements in developing countries must be strengthened if competition policy is to be implemented effectively. Consumer awareness of competition issues is vital to create a vibrant national competition culture that will stimulate equitable growth.

The Meeting launched the second phase of the project which will examine cross-border competition concerns such as international cartels and the effects of mega-mergers in developing country markets. The second phase is expected to generate valuable insight into developing country interests in relation to multilateral discussions on these issues.

India would be the first country to support a multilateral competition arrangement that made the UNCTAD Competition Rules and Principles a binding agreement. However, the EU’s thrust for multilateral competition policy at the WTO was rejected on the ground that it would not be in the interest of developing countries. The discussion of new issues at the WTO could only come after progress was made on implementation issues. The WTO Working Group on Trade and Competition Policy was overstepping its mandate by discussing multilateral competition policy rather than establishing whether there is a concrete relationship between trade and competition policy. Before negotiating multilateral competition policy at the WTO, developing countries needed to have enough experience with competition policy at the domestic level to understand its pros and cons.

Stefan Amarasinha of European Commission observed that European Union has learnt from Uruguay Round experience and hence, is proposing, “flexibility” and “progressivity” as two elements that are not reflected in the traditional set of special and differential treatment. Furthermore, it is not proposing harmonisation of competition laws.

Frederic Jenny, Chairman of the WTO Working Group on Trade & Competition Policy, said that the Project would facilitate much needed communication between competition authorities and trade officials on competition abuses which affect trade and vice versa. Jenny emphasised the unique role of CUTS in bridging the gap between competition officials and other stakeholders.

Emphasising the main objective of UNCTAD of a more efficient and more equitable world economy through a competition-rules-based globalisation process, Philippe Brusick, Head of Competition and Consumer Policy Branch, UNCTAD, commended the achievements and future role of the project in strengthening the competition culture in all the project countries.

This opportunity was also utilised to have two fringe meetings in the context of the 7-Up Project. One was a meeting of the partners, researchers and the consultants on the 6^th September. It was a full day meeting, one half of which was devoted to take stock of the problems faced during the implementation of the first phase of the Project and the possible solutions in order to avoid them in the second phase. The minutes are annexed vide Annex C.

The second half of the meeting on 6^th September focused on Phase II of the Project. Further, to have a closer look at Phase II, another meeting of the same group (partners, researchers and advisers) was organised after lunch on 8^th September. On the basis of these meetings, an action plan for Phase II was drafted and has been sent to the consultants for their comments. It would be sent to partners and researchers as soon as it is finalised. The draft action plan is being annexed vide Annex D.

A meeting with the Project Advisory Committee was organised in the evening of the 8^th September. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the substantial issues that had emerged during the Phase-I culmination meeting and to clear the way forward. It was a brief meeting and some important issues were discussed and resolved.

BACK TO TOP

Project Management

For effective implementation of the Project and in order to keep a close watch on its progress, periodic review meetings of the project team are organised. These meetings help to take stock of the latest status vis-à-vis various activities of the Project and to decide the strategy for proceeding further.

To ensure better quality of output, close watch is kept on the deliverables. In this context, Prof Rakesh Basant visited Jaipur on 28^th June to discuss the draft phase-I country reports. He identified some gaps in these reports and pointed out the places where the report did not adhere to the suggested format for these reports. At this meeting with him at the CUTS office, it was decided that Rakesh would establish a direct contact with the researchers and partners and request them to incorporate his suggestions in their reports. This was done and proved to be quite helpful. We got prompt responses and the revision of the reports began at a faster pace and in a better manner. The strategy would continue to be adopted in Phase II also.

Another brief meeting with Dr. Shyam Khemani, who is a member of the Advisory Consultants Team, was held on 17^th July at CUTS office in Jaipur. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the process as well as the content part of Phase II and some issues of Phase I of the project. He gave some suggestions as to how can we proceed on our own to fill the gaps in Phase-I reports. He said that information like level of deregulation, FDI-dependency, import competition, etc. could be found on the World Bank and CIA Website. He also suggested that that the Phase-I country reports should mention about the policy steps taken by the governments to rectify the domestic anti-competitive practices and their outcome. There was also a discussion on Phase II of the project and the issues that should be addressed in this phase.

BACK TO TOP

Project Related Travel

During this period, the country partners had organised their National Reference Group Meetings. These meetings were attended by the following CUTS’ staff:

Nitya Nanda and Anjali Bansal visited Africa to attend the NRG meetings of Kenya (13^th June), Tanzania (15^th June) and Zambia (18^th June)
Ujjwal Kumar visited Sri Lanka to attend their NRG meeting on 19^th June
Pradeep S Mehta visited Pakistan for their NRG meeting that was organised on 25^th June
Mwamba Makasa, CUTS Africa Resource Centre, was to visit South Africa for its NRG meeting but was unable to do so due to some unavoidable reasons.

BACK TO TOP

III. OUTREACH

Newsletters

As per the Project Agenda, two periodical newsletters are to be published during the project duration. One is a bi-monthly electronic newsletter called ‘7-UpDate’ and the other is a quarterly hard copy newsletter titled ‘ReguLetter’. The project partners are required to send inputs for these newsletters on a regular basis. During the fourth quarter of the Project, the third issue of ReguLetter and the fifth issue of 7-UpDate were published. Copies are enclosed vide Annexures- E and F. The Project Team has prepared lists of electronic as well as postal addresses for the purpose of reaching out to target audience with these newsletters. The mailing lists are being updated on a regular basis.

BACK TO TOP

a) ReguLetter

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a forum, in particular to the civil society, to understand the issues clearly and promote a healthy competition culture in the world. It covers developments relating to competition policy and economic regulations

The third issue of the newsletter (No.3 June 2001) has been published. It is a 28-page newsletter and carries a brief description of the progress of the 7-Up Project, news on industrial restructuring, corporate governance, financial sector, utilities and an article on the competition regime of Tanzania. The leader on the cover spoke about the cooperation between EU and US competition authorities giving a brief of the exceptions of GE-Honeywell and Boeing-McDonnell Douglas. The issue carries a brief on the GE-Honeywell Case with a few views of the readers published in the Financial Times. The second installment of the featured paper, the Global Competition Review survey, “Rating the Regulators” focused on six more competition authorities from around the world. The survey appraises the abilities, and assesses the efficiency of some of the most important national and supra-national agencies shaping the business environment of the 21^st century.

About four thousand copies of this newsletter were published, keeping in view its increasing demand. These copies have been distributed to various stakeholders in India as well as abroad such as competition authorities, regulatory authorities, consumer organisations, media persons, intergovernmental organisations, etc. It was also circulated to the project partners, country researchers, members of the advisory committee and other participants at the Phase-I Culmination Meeting.

The next issue of ReguLetter is scheduled to be published in the last week of September and planning for the same has already been done. Writing work for the issue has been completed and it would go for printing soon. The core team is receiving inputs from the project partners on a fairly regular basis.

BACK TO TOP

b) 7-UpDate

7-UpDate, the electronic newsletter has been designed to update various players in the project and other target audience on the project progress, in addition to reporting interesting news items, which have been reported across the globe on competition and other related issues.

The fifth issue of this e-newsletter was circulated during this period. It covered a brief description of the progress of the 7-Up Project in the months of May and June 2001. It also carried some viewpoints on Anti-trust and innovation.

Steps have already been initiated for the sixth issue, which is scheduled to be circulated in the last week of September 2001.

BACK TO TOP

Bill Blowup

This is a new series of publication where we would carry briefs on various Bills, primarily Bills related to economic issues, to be introduced in the Parliament in India. The purpose of this series is to induce a healthy debate in the Parliament on concerned issues. “Bill Blowup” would mainly target the parliamentarians in order to enhance their understanding on the issue involved.

The first issue of this series has been published and it carries a brief on the Competition Bill, 2001, India. A copy has been enclosed vide Annexure G.

Briefing Kit: Competition Policy & Law Made Easy

As has been envisaged in the outreach programme of the project, a briefing kit on competition law and policy has been drafted. The kit would be targeted to activists and gives a brief explanation of the relevant issues in a very simple language. The draft is being reviewed by some experts and would be published soon.

BACK TO TOP

CompetitiOnline Forum

‘CUTS’ has initiated a forum called “CompetitiOnline Forum” (competitionlineforum@yahoogroups.com ) to stimulate online discussion on various issues related to competition law and policy at national, regional and international level. The forum is providing a platform for interested parties to air their views, share information and join in online discussions.

There are around 120 members in this Forum, which includes representatives of research institutions, NGOs, consumer activists, competition authorities, media, academia, etc. from all over the world and the list is expanded and updated regularly. The existing recipients are also forwarding the information to their contacts. Discussions have already started on issues like effectiveness of competition authorities, multilateral competition policy and various other issues which have emerged from the 7-Up Project.

The members are also posting newsitems, press releases, etc. relating to competition issues, at this forum.

BACK TO TOP

IV. IMPACT OF THE PROJECT IN FIRST YEAR

The project has already started showing its impact in the 7-Up countries, both direct and indirect, within one year of its implementation. Competition policy and law has been a little known area even in countries like India and Pakistan whose experiences with such policy and law have been fairly long. But now there is an increasing awareness on competition law and policy in all these countries. The major contributing factor to this has been the NRG meetings that were held in these countries. In fact in Pakistan, there was a strong demand from the NRG members to make it a permanent body that will lobby with the government on competition and consumer issues. Although it was one of the motives behind forming the NRGs, it is encouraging to note that such a proposal came spontaneously in the meeting rather than being pushed by the project implementers.

Another interesting aspect of this growing awareness is that it is not limited to the project countries only. It is having some spillover effects in other developing countries also. Moreover, the project is being considered as first such study in the developing world. Hence CUTS has been receiving queries from different places, on competition issues in the context of developing countries. For instance, a request was received from an international law firm, White & Case, LLP in Washington, D.C. for a copy of the Competition Act of Zimbabwe. They needed the Act for their work on Worldwide Antitrust Price-Fixing Survey and wanted to know where they could find the Act if it was not available with us. The relevant documents were made available to them in both printed and electronic versions. In fact, for the electronic version, CUTS wrote to the Zimbabwe Competition Commission who sent the same very promptly.

In India, CUTS has been providing inputs to the new Competition Bill, which has already been placed in the Parliament. The bill has now been referred to a select committee of the Parliament, which is now discussing it with different groups of stakeholders. Considering CUTS’ work in the area of competition policy, the Consumer Coordination Council (CCC), the apex consumer organisation in India has requested CUTS to represent consumers before the committee. CUTS would use this opportunity to share the learning from the project with the law-makers of the country.

In order to encourage a wide-ranging and well informed public debate, both inside and outside the Parliament, CUTS is publishing a series of articles, focusing on one aspect of competition law/policy at a time, based on country experiences around the globe. The articles would help civil servants, parliamentarians and others to have a better understanding of competition issues. A few articles have already been published in a leading business daily, The Financial Express, and are attached vide Annexure I. A comprehensive Annotated Agenda for these articles is also attached vide Annexure H.

Similarly, in Sri Lanka also a new bill is under consideration. The NRG meeting pondered over various aspects of the bill and came out with many important suggestions. It is expected that the government there would give due consideration to those suggestions. A conference was also organised by the Law & Society Trust in Sri Lanka, a few months back, on competition and regulation. This is a clear indication of the growing awareness and keenness to know about these issues.

In Pakistan, the growing awareness on competition issues has led to a demand for a thorough review of the competition law, if not a new law, as people there feel that the existing law is not good enough in the changing scenario both within the domestic economy and outside. A similar concern has been raised in Kenya also and people feel drastic changes are required in the existing competition law. The NRG in Kenya has also raised demands for a comprehensive consumer protection law and better regulatory mechanisms. The government is seriously considering them.

A comprehensive consumer protection law is under consideration in Zambia also. The Zambia Competition Commission celebrated 28^th June as the “Competition Day” in Zambia to raise awareness on competition issues among the people. The project had a direct contribution to this celebration. CUTS published 10 posters and five booklets for the Zambia Competition Commission at their request for this day. The aim of the publications was to inspire other countries also for taking up similar publications to create awareness, which will enable the development of a healthy competition culture.

In all project countries, it has been clearly observed that the formation and meetings of the National Reference Group further strengthened the working linkages of many economic players who hitherto had no direct interaction with each other yet their work is aimed at achieving the common goal of economic development.

In Tanzania, there is a good competition law. However, the implementation of the law has been extremely poor. The project has been able to raise awareness on the law as well as its usefulness. It has also been recognised that one of the main factors for poor implementation of the law in Tanzania is the total absence of a consumer movement in the country. A strong need has been felt, particularly within the civil society to launch a consumer movement in the country. In this regard they have also solicited technical and other assistance from CUTS.

In South Africa, where a good competition law and enforcement mechanism are already in place, the existing consumer movement, though not very strong, has resolved to take up competition issues more seriously. There has also been a demand for a comprehensive consumer protection law in the country.

Among the spill over effects of the project is a demand from the consumer organisations of some African countries like Mozambique, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, etc. for publishing booklets on anti-competitive practices prevalent in their country. The aim of these booklets is to generate awareness among these consumer organisations and promote a healthy competition culture. We are in the process of finalising the terms of reference for these booklets and these would be published soon.

Pradeep S. Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS was invited by the Competition Commission of South Africa for making a presentation on “Competition, Globalisation & Innovation: The Challenges Facing Developing Countries in a Changing Global Environment”. In his presentation, Mehta emphasised the role of competition policy in development.

Mehta also made a presentation on the 7-Up Project at a seminar on “Trade and Competition Issues in the run up to Doha” in London on 21^st June. The seminar was jointly organised by the Consumers’ Association and Consumers’ International. Mehta spoke about the learnings and experiences gained from the project in its first phase.

CUTS has been invited for a regional conference on competition law & policy to be held in end of November in Kampala, Uganda. The conference is being organised by the COMESA Secretariat in conjunction with the International Law Institute of Uganda. They have proposed to have a separate presentation on the 7-Up Project at the conference.

CUTS is organising an international symposium on “Competition Policy & Consumer Interest in the Global Economy”, in Geneva, Switzerland on 12-133th October 2001. The symposium is being sponsored by the International Development Research Centre, Canada. The objectives of the Symposium are:

· To inform and build capacity among developing country civil society representatives about competition policy and law

· To bring developing country competition concerns to the attention of the trade community

· To bring together policy-makers, practitioners and civil society representatives reflecting a range of opinions on competition issues

· To encourage informed discussion and debate through the use of case studies.

The audience will be made up of two main target groups: civil society organisations from developing countries and representatives from the permanent missions of the WTO working on competition issues. Resource persons include competition practitioners, representatives from UNCTAD, WTO and other intergovernmental organisations and other experts on competition issues.

BACK TO TOP

V. PROBLEMS, SOLUTIONS & OTHER CHANGES

A project of such nature, comprising of several countries, would certainly involve some problems and changes during the course of its implementation. During the period under review, the following problems were encountered:

Follow-up with partners: The most time consuming and difficult task is to follow-up with partners and to coordinate various activities in such a way that all project countries move together. To organise the NRG meetings in these countries in succession was very time consuming. Finally, all meetings were organised one after the other and were attended by CUTS staff except the meeting in South Africa.

NRG meetings: Another problem that was faced was at some of the NRG meetings the draft phase-I country reports were not distributed to the participants in advance despite the fact that all partners had been advised to do so. Because of this, the discussions in the NRG meeting could not be properly focussed and some of the participants could not take part effectively. The advance distribution of the reports was also important because many of the NRG members were not fully conversant with competition issues.

Draft Phase-I Country Reports: Most of the draft country reports did not include the comments and suggestions that emerged at the NRG meetings. A lot of follow up had to be done for the revision of the reports to incorporate the comments of NRG and suggestions of CUTS and Prof. Rakesh Basant.

The revised country reports from some of the partners as well as the synthesis report could be revised only a couple of days before the Phase-I Culmination Meeting. From others it was not received at all. As a result, the reports could not be circulated to the participants of the meeting. This might have made the participation of the invitees and quality of deliberations at the meeting more effective. A note has been taken of this and it has been decided that in future, even the draft versions could be circulated if the revised ones are not available in such situation.

At the Phase-I culmination meeting, DFID asked for clarifying the responsibilities of the team members working on 7-up Project in CUTS. In this context, the following arrangements have been made:

a) Ms Anjali Bansal would be the project coordinator and would be responsible for the day-to-day management of the project activities from CUTS.

b) Mr. Nitya Nanda would look at the content part of the Project and would be involved in the study of various questionnaires, reports and other output materials of the Project in close coordination with Prof. Rakesh Basant, who continues as the core researcher of the Project.

c) Mr. Ujjwal Kumar would be responsible for the India part of the Project. He is very closely involved in the development of the new competition law of India and is providing research support to the Project as a whole.

d) Mr. V.K. Ghoshal would look at the financial and administration details of the Project. He would deal with all the receipts and payments to be made in respect of the Project. In doing this, he would get assistance from Ms Nupur Naidu, who is also working with the Finance and Administration Department at CUTS.

BACK TO TOP

VI. PLAN FOR THE NEXT QUARTER

The next quarter would be the first quarter of Phase II and hence is very crucial. Most of the preliminary activities for Phase II would be completed during this period. Some foundation, for structuring Phase II, was laid at the Phase-I culmination meeting.

Questionnaires: The most important activity to be completed during this period is finalisation of questionnaires for the field survey to be done in Phase II. The questionnaire would essentially be for an awareness survey among the stakeholders and some in depth survey of the Competition Authority. Preliminary discussion on this questionnaire was done at the Phase-I culmination meeting. The questionnaire is in the process of being finalised and would be sent to the researchers and partners very soon.

Phase-I country reports and their synthesis: During the next quarter, additional information required from Phase-I questionnaires and Phase-I country reports would be collected and incorporated in the individual reports as well as in the Synthesis report.

2^nd NRG Meeting: Phase-II would also involve organising of NRG meetings in the project countries during the first week of November. At this meeting, the revised Phase-I country reports would be discussed and the questionnaire of Phase-II would be deliberated. These meetings would also be attended by the CUTS staff. A particular format for preparing the reports of this NRG meeting would be sent to partners and researchers for ensuring uniformity in the reports.

Mid-term Review Meeting: In order to take stock of the progress made by the researchers on Phase-II questionnaires, a mid term review meeting would be organised in the second week of October in Geneva. Country researchers and partners have already been intimated about this.

Newsletters: The fourth issue of “ReguLetter” and the sixth and the seventh issue of “7-UpDate” would be published during the next three months.

BACK TO TOP

VII. Annexures

· Annexure A: Reflections From NRG Meetings in 7-Up Countries

· Annexure B: Agenda of the Phase-I Culmination Meeting

· Annexure C: Learnings from Phase-I of the Project

· Annexure D: Draft Action Plan for Phase II

· Annexure E: ReguLetter, No. 3, June 2001

· Annexure F: 7-UpDate Vol. 1, No.5

· Annexure G: Bill Blowup

· Annexure H: Article Series on Competition Law/Policy: Outline

· Annexure I: Articles on Competition Law/Policy