The Committee heard the Activity Report of Georgian National Competition Agency for 2020.

The Head of the Agency, Irakli Lekvinadze expanded on the main directions of 2020 in terms of both activity and content work and monitoring and research.

"The enforcement of the competition policy in Georgia dates back to 1992, amid the adoption of the first decree. The first antitrust agency was established in 1996 and existed until 2004, after which a completely new approach was launched in 2014. In 2014, within the framework of the EU integration policy, the agency was established as an independent entity, the relevant legislation - "Georgian Law on Competition" was passed, which defined the main directions by which the Competition Agency was guided until 2020. The year 2020, despite the pandemic, was very important, in particular, legislative changes were implemented, which, on the one hand, strengthened the enforcement of competition in Georgia and, on the other hand, added to new functions”, - the rapporteur noted.

According to him, in 2020, the law on anti-dumping activities was adopted, which has been in force since January 1, 2021, and the call for applications will commence from June 1 of this year.

I. Lekvinadze dwelt on the powers of the agency and the activities carried out in each direction - "I believe that the recommendations issued by the State Audit Office to the Competition Agency in early 2020 are important, which means further improvement of our activities. Out of 7 recommendations, the legislative changes responded to virtually 6 recommendations by reflecting these substantive remarks in the legislation. One of the recommendations was that the Agency should have a long-term strategy. We already have an agreement with USAID in this direction and by the end of 2021 we will have implemented this recommendation as well”.

At the sitting, the MPs expressed their views.

"The document provides in-depth complete information, which creates a complete impression on the activities of the Agency in all directions. The topics discussed in the report are inherently acute and important, the interest of our society is very great and a separate committee hearing can be held on each of them. For example, with regards to the fuel prices, pharmacy market, etc. All issues are the subject of special attention and our further cooperation in this direction will be close”, - the Chairman of the Committee, Mikheil Sarjveladze stated.