Good Governance for and by Regulators
Agenda
Monday, November 30, 2015
Dr. Haniff Ahamat, Assistant Professor, Ahmad Ibrahim Faculty of Laws. International Islamic University, Selangor, Malaysia
“Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) and Good Regulatory Practices in Malaysia”
Shintaro Hamanaka, Asian Development Bank, Manila, The Philippines
“Service Trade Regulation”
Dr. Marife Ballesteros, Researcher, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, The Philippines
“Good Governance for and by Regulators – Philippine Perspective”
Andi Zubaida Assaf, Senior Investigator for Policy, Research and Advocacy Directorate, Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (KPPU), Indonesia
“KPPU and Competition Policy: A Guide to Implement KPPU Competition Checklist”
Dr. Robert Ian McEwin, University of Malaya, Malaysian Centre of Regulatory Studies, Malaysia
“Ensuring Procedural Fairness in Competition Law Regulation”
Joseph Seon Hur, Of Counsel, DaeRyook & AJU Law Firm, Seoul, Korea
“The Antitrust Regulation Regime of Korea: its Recent Performance and Limits”
Lai-Lynn Angelica B. Barcenas, Partner, Barcenas Barcenas & Partners Law Offices (BBPLaw), Manila, The Philippines
“The New Philippine Competition Law: Issues and Challenges”
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
Dr. Enny Nurbaningsih, Head of National Law Development Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia
“The Regulatory Reform Process in Indonesia”
Dr. Jamie Seth Davidson, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore, Department of Political Sciences, Singapore
“Indonesia’s New Governance Institutions: Accounting for their Varied Performance”
Buntoon Wongseelashote, Thai Chamber of Commerce, Bangkok, Thailand
“Corruption in Thailand and its Impact on Economic Growth – the Case of Government Procurement”
Nurhafiza Bt Hasan, Head of Licensing Unit, Energy Commission, Malaysia
“Regulatory Initiatives to Enhance the Electricity Supply System Performance in Malaysia”
Dr. Pratompong Srinuan, Senior Economist, National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, Bangkok, Thailand
“Telecom Market Development and Its Governance in Thailand”
Im Vutha, Director, Regulation and Dispute Resolution Unit, Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia, Cambodia
“Cambodia’s Telecommunication Market and its Regulatory Situation”
Report
In cooperation with Hanns Seidel Foundation, CPG hosted the International Conference on “Good Governance for and by Regulators in ASEAN” on 30 November and 1 December 2015 at Windsor Suites Hotel Bangkok. Subject matter of the conference was an evaluation of the status and development of regulatory law and practices in ASEAN countries in two directions: The first question was directed at the standards set by national regulatory bodies to guarantee good governance while the second perspective was directed at the standards the regulators themselves apply to secure good governance within their own regulatory agency.
The event brought together 13 speakers from 7 Asian countries, namely Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia and the Philippines, Japan and South Korea. They covered a wide range of expertise and experience from the perspective of regulatory authorities, researchers from academic institutions as well as lawyers from the private sector. Equally varied were the topics presented ranging from international standards and mechanisms (TPPA, WTO trade agreements) and national regulatory systems in Asia and beyond (USA, the European Union, Australia) to different policy fields of regulation (competition, energy, telecommunications) and typical challenges such as the issue of corruption or governmental influence as well.
Dr. Haniff Ahamat, Assistant Professor, Ahmad Ibrahim Faculty of Laws of the International Islamic University, Selangor, Malaysia, opened the presentations with an account on the current discussion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in South East Asia in general and Malaysia in particular with a special focus on the chapter on regulatory coherence in the TPPA. Continuing the issue of the international framework of regulatory law Shintaro Hamanaka, Economist at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, The Philippines, discussed challenges to international service trade regulation in the light of a lacking of a sufficient definition of the term ‘service’. Highlighting the importance of the rule of law Dr. Robert Ian McEwin, professor at the Malaysian Centre of Regulatory Studies at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, followed with a comparison of procedural standards in the United States, the European Union and various Asian countries.
Presentations on the specific developments of regulatory systems in particular countries were then started by Dr. Marife Ballesteros, Vice-president of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, who gave an account on the development of the regulatory reform process in the Philippines throughout the last decades.
Dealing with the regulatory system in Indonesia Dr. Enny Nurbaningsih, Head of National Law Development Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia, presented a view on the regulatory reform process in Indonesia while Dr. Jamie Seth Davidson, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Sciences of the National University of Singapore, critically assessed the performance of various Indonesian governmental institutions involved in setting regulatory policies.
The compromising effects of corruption on the regulatory system in Thailand were elaborated on by Buntoon Wongseelashote, Thai Chamber of Commerce and Thai Board of Trade who gave a detailed analysis of particular cases and pointed to loopholes in the new draft bill on government procurement which he saw as enabling corruption. Joseph Seon Hur, lawyer and Of Counsel at DaeRyook & AJU Law Firm in Seoul, and former Secretary General of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), presented on the development of the enforcement of competition rules in Korea, with the KFTC being one of the strictest competition authorities in the world.
Selected policy field related contributions completed the conference with Andi Zubaida Assaf, Senior Investigator for Policy, Research and Advocacy Directorate. Indonesian Competition Authority (KPPU), introducing into a KPPU compiled checklist as to ensure that all relevant questions concerning competition policy issues are addressed by governmental decisions. Lai-Lynn Angelica B. Barcenas, Partner at Barcenas Barcenas & Partners Law Offices in Manila, The Philippines, introduced into the main structures of the new Philippine competition act that came into force just in July 2015 and elaborated on conflicts between various stakeholders that could arise under the new law. Nurhafiza Bt Hasan, Head, Licensing Unit, Energy Commission of Malaysia, spoke about the development of energy regulation in Malaysia over the last two decades and illustrated the development by the example of the licensing system in the Malaysian energy market. Dr. Pratompong Srinuan, Senior Economist, National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand, introduced into the recent telecom market development. Im Vutha, Director, Regulation and Dispute Resolution Unit, Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia, discussed the current regulatory situation of Cambodia’s telecommunication market.
The lively and lengthy discussions following each of the presentations reflected the keen interest among all participants to deepen the understanding of the issues presented and to gain new ideas and insights for furthering good governance by regulatory law and practice in their respective countries.
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