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About the program

CLIP is an important and timely program of economic cooperation that supports ASEAN’s regional goal of building a globally integrated, highly competitive economic region through effective competition laws, enforcement agencies, and enhanced regional cooperation.

Lack of competition is understood to harm those in society least able to afford it. Competition law abuses raise prices of necessities, entrench dominant firms and keep entrepreneurs from contesting markets on their merits.

Effective competition laws and regulatory institutions are focused on making markets work to grow economies and in support of inclusive development.

When CLIP commenced in 2014, just 5 of the 10 ASEAN Member States had national competition laws in place. By 2019, 9 of the 10 countries did, with Cambodia being the exception.

CLIP works with ASEAN countries to build capacity to draft, introduce and/or reform the legal and institutional mechanisms necessary for effective competition law implementation.

CLIP draws on the ACCC’s deep experience as a strong regulator to support policy and law reform, build institutional capacity and raise the quality of law enforcement in the region. CLIP is supported by the Australian and New Zealand aid programs through the ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand Free Trade Agreement Economic Cooperation Support Program, and managed by the ACCC.

The ASEAN Member States are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

CLIP in focus

Since the commencement of CLIP in 2014 until 2021, CLIP received funding of $9,045,000.

Between October 2014 and December 2019, CLIP conducted a total of 116 activities in 12 countries:

  • Phase I - 22 activities
  • Phase II - 47 activities
  • Phase III - 47 activities
  • Phase IV is currently being delivered and will run until October 2021.

How CLIP delivers

CLIP is currently delivering a full program of activities through virtual means and remote assistance, despite travel restrictions impeding in-country activities. These activities are informed by and build on the relationships and work previously undertaken by the ACCC in ASEAN over recent years.

Between October 2014 and December 2019, CLIP delivered 116 activities. Over this time, CLIP has engaged with a wide range of institutions including competition agencies and related government ministries, sector regulators, the judiciary, other ASEAN development partners and academia to support better competition outcomes for consumers and business.

CLIP activities are focused on developing practical skills and knowledge transfer from regulator to regulator.

Workshops are typically delivered by ACCC staff with support from experts and other regional regulators, including New Zealand, Japan and Singapore. Each workshop is tailored to small groups of ASEAN countries and uses hypothetical exercises and scenarios to develop understanding and skills.

From 1 July 2018 to 31 December 2019, CLIP reached 384 people (48% female and 53% male) through the following activities.

Capacity building workshops (14 total)

  • 9 group workshops
  • 4 regional workshops
  • 1 bilateral workshop

Regional placements (23 total)

  • 15 secondments of ASEAN officials to the ACCC and New Zealand competition agencies
  • Expert visits and 8 short-term placements of ACCC staff in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam

Other activities

  • High-level meetings of competition agency heads and Commissioners
  • Series of eLearning modules, a toolkit for investigators and series of competition primers for ASEAN judges
  • Technical and mentoring assistance from the ACCC to ASEAN countries

Online education

CLIP eLearning has a focus on developing practical skills and knowledge that supports effective enforcement of competition law.

Competition and consumer protection officials from ASEAN Member States are invited to access eLearning modules through CLIP’s online learning management system, CLIP Academy. If you are a competition law or consumer protection official and would like to access CLIP Academy, visit learning.accc.gov.au/user_login to register an account and sign in.

CLIP Academy modules include:

  • Introduction to Competition Law
  • Economics for Competition Law
  • Introduction to Enforcement
  • Investigation and Planning
  • Evidence Handling
  • Introduction to Mergers
  • Market Studies
  • Abuse of Dominance

Competition Primers for ASEAN Judges

The Competition Primers for ASEAN Judges are a series of information sheets designed to offer practical guidance to members of the judiciary when analysing competition cases in their courts. These primers bring together the Federal Court of Australia's very rich technical knowledge and first-hand experience with the OECD's international experience working with judges, and knowledge of the ASEAN region and laws.

Topics include:

  • Economics for judges in the competition law context
  • Expert evidence in the context of competition law cases
  • Circumstantial evidence in the context of competition law
  • Abuse of dominant position: what is it and how is it assessed?
  • Market definition

The Competition Primers for ASEAN Judges are available in the following languages:

Cooperation with ASEAN on consumer protection

Complementing the ACCC’s work with ASEAN through CLIP is the AANZFTA Consumer Affairs Program (CAP).

Through CAP, the ACCC is delivering technical assistance to members of the ASEAN Committee on Consumer Protection, promoting effective consumer protection administration and ASEAN objectives on consumer law.

More information is available on Consumer Affairs Program.

Newsletter

CLIPPINGS is the newsletter of CLIP and CAP and provides updates on the many and varied activities being delivered in support of competition law and consumer protection implementation in ASEAN. If you would like to receive the CLIP newsletter, please sign up through the CLIPPINGS newsletter subscription page.

CLIPPINGS - Edition 16

CLIPPINGS - Edition 15

CLIPPINGS - Edition 14

CLIPPINGS - Edition 13

CLIPPINGS - Edition 12

CLIPPINGS - Edition 11

CLIPPINGS - Edition 10

CLIPPINGS - Edition 9

CLIPPINGS - Edition 8 ( PDF 558.75 KB )

CLIPPINGS - Edition 7 ( PDF 3.38 MB )

CLIPPINGS - Edition 6 ( PDF 897.42 KB )

Contact CLIP

Email clip@accc.gov.au

See also

International relations

AANZFTA media releases

Study visit to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (media release)

ACCC hosts leaders of South East Asian competition agencies (media release)