AmCham celebrates the approval of Competition Law

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The North American and Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce, known as AmCham celebrates the approval on Monday of the Law for Strengthening of the Competition Authorities of Costa Rica.

According to AmCham, this project is key to raising the standard of doing business in Costa Rica, and to advance the process of access to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, known as OECD.

For the Chamber, the law is an incentive for companies to continually compete and innovate, which will cause a direct benefit for consumers, who will have more options to acquire goods and services.

"The approval of this law brings multiple economic, social, and income distribution benefits to the Costa Ricans," said Elías Soley, President of AmCham. "AmCham, for several months, had requested the government to promote the approval of this law as an urgent measure to improve the internal business in the country and favor of consumers."

According to the Chamber, among the benefits of the law are a price reduction, increasing the variety and quality of products and services, and more productivity, among others.

AmCham calls on the deputies, to give a quick approval during the second round of votes, and thus have a new law that promotes competition in business.

On Monday, the 52 deputies of the Legislative Assembly unanimously approved, the bill No.21.303, known as Law on the Strengthening of the Competition Authorities of Costa Rica.

The law creates the Commission to Promote Competition, which will be the national authority responsible for the defense and promotion of free competition in business.

The Commission will be part of the Ministry of Economy and is part of the requirements for the country to be a member of the OECD.

On April, as A.M. Costa Rica previously reported, the OECD, granted a formal opinion on the entry of Costa Rica into that organization.

Among the main achievements recognized by the organization are the advances in fiscal matters and public employment.

The evaluation process led by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Policy began in 2015 when this Committee published a Study on Public Governance in Costa Rica.

That report, in addition to making a diagnosis, provided a series of recommendations in different areas such as: management capacity and coordination of the government center, monitoring and evaluation, public budgets, public employment, regional development and integrity policies in public procurement.

"To achieve this result, it was essential to demonstrate the ability and willingness of the country to implement legal and administrative measures in the areas of governance center, budget governance, and public employment," said the Ministry of Planning in its statement.

According to the Ministries, the approval and implementation of the Law to Strengthen Public Finances was key to achieving this goal, particularly by providing tools to improve the efficiency of spending on specific salaries and destinations and establishing a clear fiscal rule that allows doing more with the same resources.

"Costa Rica had an important challenge: to approve a fiscal reform that would give sustainability to public finances. Achieving this task was not easy, it was a work of several years, which managed to unify the thinking of different political forces motivated by greater awareness to meet the structural challenges facing the country," said Rocío Aguilar, Minister of Finance. “Through this law and its implementation, a great step is taken towards more efficient fiscal and budgetary governance oriented towards the fulfillment of strategic objectives."

The OECD has the mission of promoting policies aimed at improving the economic and social well-being of people around the world. It provides a forum where governments share experiences, elaborate public policy and jointly seek solutions to common and global problems.

Costa Rica has been evaluated by 22 technical committees of the Organization, of which the Public Governance Committee is the thirteenth to be approved.



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Do you think this law will be positive for promoting freedom in business in the country? We would like to know your thoughts on this story.  Send your comments to: news@amcostarica.com

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