Updated at 6.48pm: Financial Secretary Henry Tang Yen-ying said on Tuesday a competition law would be beneficial for Hong Kong?s economy, and particularly for small-and-medium sized companies.
Speaking at the opening of the Public Forum on the Way Forward for Hong Kong?s Competition Policy, Mr Tang emphasised the importance of markets and competition.
?Competition helps maximise efficiency in the allocation of resources, provides a clear indicator of market preferences and maintains costs at viable levels while providing a range of choices.? ?In the longer term, it can also promote innovation and creativity. Competition has served Hong Kong well,? Mr Tang said.
He said this understanding led the government to study ways to ensure existing policy would maintain a ?competition-friendly? environment.
Mr Tang said the Competition Policy Review Committee (CPRC) ? appointed in June last year to review current policy ? suggested in a recent report that a new competition law would bring benefits to Hong Kong?s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
?As SMEs lack market power almost by definition, their conduct can rarely have the effect of appreciably preventing, restricting or distorting competition,? he explained.
?On the contrary, SMEs stand to gain as the potential of the bigger players to adopt abusive or other anti-competitive practices is checked by competition law,? the financial secretary said.