Regional Workshop on Merger Analysis

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Created on Monday, 16 December 2013 15:55

Capacity constraints have been one of the key problems hindering effective performance of most competition authorities in developing countries, including Malawi. One of the function of the Competition and Fair Trading Commission is to determine whether to authorize or reject mergers so as to minimise their anti competitive effects while maximizing the words of one of the World Bank Group Vice Presidents will be true for the Commission that “…effective enforcement of competition rules across sectors—rather than the pure existence of competition laws—makes a difference in the impact of competition policies”.

So the regional workshop on Merger analysis held in Pretoria, South Africa from 1-4 September 2013 came at an opportune time for the Commission’s Senior Economists Headwick Banda and Rose Kadewere. The workshop, which attracted delegates from the SADC region, covered both theoretical and practical aspects in merger investigation including staging a mock merger investigation, hence enhancing the analytical skills of case handlers. Participants were also trained on how to plan, collect and build reliable evidence. The workshop was organized by United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the United States Department of Justice, and the hosts Competition Commission of South Africa (CCS), with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).