The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has pledged to strengthen anti-monopoly supervision. The regulator will step up efforts to help improve the legal system for fair competition and provide clearer guidance to market entities. It will also focus on stabilizing the macro-economy and safeguarding people’s well-being, as well as strengthening anti-trust regulation and law enforcement in key areas. The SAMR emphasized the anti-monopoly work for this year should be carried out steadily and in a regulated, transparent and predictable manner to promote high-quality economic development. It said intensified efforts should be made to build a modern regulatory system, enhance the governance to ensure fair competition, prompt enterprises to strengthen compliance, and enable the nation to play a bigger role on the global stage in formulating anti-monopoly rules.
“How to effectively curb the disorderly expansion of capital while boosting market confidence is a major test for improving modern supervision capacities, which is also a prerequisite for deepening reforms to streamline the administration and delegate power amid efforts to improve the business environment,” said Long Haibo, Senior Researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Strengthened anti-monopoly supervision is expected to increase the international competitiveness of Chinese platform-based enterprises. These platforms allow consumers, entrepreneurs, businesses and the general public to connect, share resources, and sell products or services. The governance of the platform economy should follow the principle of market orientation, rule of law and internationalization, according to the Financial Stability and Development Committee. Relevant departments should complete rectification work in large platform companies as soon as possible through regulated, transparent and predictable supervision. Authorities dealt with 176 monopoly cases and imposed fines totaling CNY23.59 billion, the China Daily reports.
