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| Source: Key speakers from left: Igor Artemiev, Liu Junchen, Dennis Davis, S.L Bunker and Madala Masuku. |
The 4th BRICS International Competition Conference took place on the 10 - 13 November 2015, the theme was: Competition and Inclusive Growth. BRICS is a global economic governance and coordination. The conference is a very useful forum to reflect on experiences in the competition policies and their relationship with the broader policy goals. The 5 BRICS of economies are all concerned with how best to promote competitive, balanced and dynamic economies that help their societies achieve national development goals.
A competitive economy is an economy where broad economic participation is possible and not impeded. Broadening participation is, in turn, an essential part of inclusive growth. where more people have jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities, incomes are more equally distributed. The immense cooperative potential of a society is then also harnessed towards innovation, creativity, and knowledge transmission: all the more intangible qualities which we know are at the core dynamic and resilient modern economies.
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| Source: from left: Honourable Madala Masuku (Deputy Minister of Economic Development; Mr P. Mothopeng (Ceo at Boncom (Pty) ltd), Development Portfolio in Parliament of South Africa and Mr Makhabela (young entrepreneur). |
The conference has BRICS bias, drawing strongly on the policy, operational and intellectual capacity from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It looked at critical issues that affect all our economies: -How competition policy interfaces with the policy challenges of inequality and inclusive growth.
-The connection between growth and innovation.
-Competition in socially-sensitive markets
-Addressing abuse of dominance in domestic markets.
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| Source: Ellen Thabane (PR & Communications) and Mr P. Mothopeng : Ceo at Boncom (Pty) Ltd. |
-Public interest considerations in areas such as jobs and small business development . Increasingly, citizens require their governments to show how policy promotes human development goals. Competition policy too is under scrutiny. Not only, should it tackle entrenched economic power and provide opportunity for new entrants, it must also clearly, not just implicitly, demonstrate benefits for a states industrial and consumer objectives. South Africa is now celebrating 21 years of democracy. within the first five years of the new democratic order, the country revamped its competition policies and introduced our new competition regime.
