WHY DOES ASEAN REQUIRE COMPETITION LAW?
First, since ASEAN aims to strengthen economic integration in the region, it needs laws and institutions to support the implementation and elaboration of trade and investment liberalisation within the ASEAN market. The interaction between government, consumers and producers has given rise to a concern that the rules-based system needs to be strengthened. How the competitive process actually works and to what extent governments should regulate relationships between producers and consumers is significant. In this sense, competition law is essential as an instrument to regulate fair competition because, as mentioned earlier, it is compatible with liberalisation in that it is basically neutral and non-discriminatory. Second, in an emerging ASEAN free market economy, monopolies and restrictive business practices are viewed as undesirable, since they are likely to distort prices and inhibit the efficient allocation of resources. Thus, there is a call for contestability to ensure that free en
