This year’s sectoral workshop was dedicated to discussing the competition policy issues that are specific to the telecommunications and the electronic communications / information and communication technology sectors. The main difference between this type of workshop and regular workshops is that the participants include oficials from regulators of the relevant sector – in this case many participants were from telecommunications regulators, namely those from the Asia Pacific Region that have competition powers.
The workshop analysed some of the main regulatory and enforcement issues in these sectors, in particular of a more structural nature, including merger control and markets structures. Another of the main aspects that was discussed during the workshop were the issues relating to intellectual property, in particular those relating to the telecoms and ICT sectors, namely those issues related to standard essential patents and to telecoms equipment.
The workshop was attended by 36 country representatives from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam representing the OECD, WIPO, EU, national governments, Competition Commissions, and Telecommunication Authorities.
Agenda (Seoul).pdf