Russia's competition development program to be renewed
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government to renew the country's current competition development program to the year 2015, after the anti-monopoly service presented a report on Thursday on competition in Russia, RIA Novosti reported.
"I order the government to work out and present proposals for changes to the Russian competition development program, and a schedule for implementation to 2015," Medvedev told a government meeting on the report.
Medvedev said the "National Monopoly" law should be refreshed if it hampers competition development in Russia.
Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) head Igor Artemyev said that there was interference between the "Competition Protection" law approved in 2006 and the more specific "Natural Monopoly" law, approved in 1995, which leads to non-competitive solutions in many cases.
"I am not calling for elimination of this law now but let's evaluate its relevance. If the law contradicts with the fundamental rules of the competition law, these contradictions need to be somehow eliminated," Medvedev said at the meeting.
Artemyev said the Russian competition program had suffered from a lack of clarity of purpose and clear processes.
The four-year program, approved in 2009, stipulated easier ways for businessmen to enter any market, including lowering costs and improving access to infrastructure, but Artemyev was scathing about how little progress it had made.
"The program has not produced any results; it turned out to be meaningless document. The competition development program has suffered a complete fiasco in this country," Artemyev said on Wednesday.
