South Africa: Economic official calls for rethinking of competition strategy

South Africa’s Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel is reportedly calling on the government to rethink its overall competition policy strategy.

Patel said late last week that regulation should shift away from its current focus on market conduct and move towards the overall industrial structure of the economic climate. According to reports, the official’s strategy includes ensuring that competition watchdogs have sufficient power to breakup dominant companies that abuse their market power.

Reports say the nation’s economy is highly concentrated even after 15 years of competition law in place.

The remarks were made a competition policy conference held last Thursday and highlighted the current uncertainty felt by competition officials over whether the Competition Act gives them the power to break up major conglomerates.

Patel is now calling for “radical change” to the economic structure of South Africa to boost development and increase employment.

Full content: BDLive

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