The 7up2 midterm review meeting took place in Vietnam in August 2005

7Up2 Project

Promoting effective markets through competition policy and law in Asia

Background

CUTS' '7Up' research and advocacy projects focus on the challenges facing Southern countries in developing an adequate competition policy. After the successful implementation of the first stage in seven countries (hence the name): Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India, the 7Up model has been extended to different regions of the world.

7Up2 is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Swiss agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and UK Department for International Development (DfID).

Concept

7Up2 includes Bangladesh, India and Nepal as well as three countries in the Mekong Region: Cambodia, Laos PDR and Vietnam.

The project’s aim is to accelerate the process towards a well-suited competition law and policy in these countries; and advance the environment in which the law and policy can be enforced for better results. As developing countries liberalise their economies, a concomitant development of the legal and regulatory framework is crucial – without it, governments have no tools to keep the market in check and to counter anti-competitive practices.

However, to be effective the framework must be well-adapted to the national economic, social and cultural context of the relevant countries. It is hoped that the strong similarity and comparability between these project countries will allow for expertise, resources and effective solutions to quickly cross borders.

Expected outcomes

The project was launched in January 2004 and will conclude in June 2006. During this time, a network of research institutions will be engaged in assessing the current level of competition legislation. The outcome of the research will be three country reports and accompanying advocacy documents for each project country. In addition, the local capacity of civil society, academia and government bodies to deal with issues relating to competition and competition laws will be improved through education and administrative training.

The country research partners

Economic Institute of Cambodia (EIC), Cambodia

National Economic Research Institute (NERI), Lao PDR

Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), Vietnam

Vietnam Standard and Consumer Association (VINASTAS), Vietnam

Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), Bangladesh

South Asia Watch on International Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), Nepal

Activities in India are implemented by CUTS C-CIER under the project “Towards a Functional Competition Policy for India” (FunComp)