Competition Policy in Infrastructure Services Conference

(04/01, En, Es)

Inter-American Development Bank

Multilateral Investment Fund

Conference

Competition Policy in Infrastructure Services:
Second Generation Issues in the Reform of Public Services

Washington, D.C. - April 23-24, 2001

Objectives

During the last decade, most Latin American and Caribbean countries have accumulated extensive experience in the privatization of infrastructure services and in the institutional and regulatory reforms essential to foster a suitable environment for private investment. The Inter-American Development Bank has actively promoted infrastructure reform in Latin America. After more than a decade of reforms, it is time to re-think these processes.

The reforms have succeeded in fostering private participation. Due to the reforms, Latin-American countries were able to attract private participation to infrastructure sectors like telecommunications, transportation, energy, and potable water and sewerage. Private participation in infrastructure has reduced public deficits and introduced new technologies. In addition of efficiency improvements, private sector has extended infrastructure services to more consumers.

However, these reforms seem less successful in promoting effective competition in infrastructure sectors, which is the other building block of the reforms. Complaints from authorities and consumers about lack of effective competition and the identification of indicators showing weak competition in the region's infrastructure sectors are the driving forces of this conference.

The primary goal of this conference is to build a consensus in the understanding of some of the flaws that affect reforms with respect to the introduction of competition in infrastructure sectors, and how to approach the challenges ahead. To this end, we believe that we should be able to reach some sort of agreement on a few key questions:

Conference Organization

The conference addressed some competition problems that occurred since the reform process started. It focused on the experiences that have been in place the longest. In addition, the discussion was concentrated in the role of competition regulations in dealing with competition problems in infrastructure sectors. The conference was organized in five sessions and a round table.

1) The first session was meant to deal with the following question: Which are the regulations to address competition in infrastructure services? During this session, four competition specialists presented different aspects that should be considered in competition laws so that the special features of infrastructure sectors are taken into account.

2) The second session helped to identify competition problems in infrastructure sectors. Examples of poor competition in infrastructure sectors were analyzed. Three factors seem to be at the root of competition problems: the privatization process itself, poor competition regulations, and interference between competition and sector regulatory authorities. Therefore this session gave some elucidation to our second question: When does a country have a competition problem?

3) The third session focused on How a country should modify competition laws and a sector regulatory framework. In this session, the experiences of Argentina and Chile illustrated how the regulations of competition in infrastructure sectors need to be addressed in both sector and competition laws. Some general recommendations were discussed.

4) The fourth session addressed the question concerning which type of competition policy demands the process of increasing regional globalization. The theoretical approach on how to harmonize competition regulations was illustrated with a presentation on the Mercosur approach and on the problems that may surface in transnational infrastructures when proper competition is not enforceable.

5) The last session addressed the question of how to enhance and coordinate the role of competition and regulatory agencies. This session analyzed the role of each authority in the recent case of the Endesa- Iberdrola merger, two Spanish power companies.

     Agenda

     Presentations

     Documents

     Speakers Biographies

For additional information, please contact us at sds/ifm@iadb.org

Infrastructure and Financial Markets Division
Private Enterprise and Financial Markets Subdepartment
Sustainable Development Department
Inter-American Development Bank

Last updated: 01/16/07