The Chairman Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), Farid Ahmad Tarar, represented Pakistan at the 2026 National Fair Competition Conference of China in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province.
Chairman CCP showcases Pakistan’s Competition reforms at Int’l Conference in China
ISLAMABAD, Sep 12 (APP):The Chairman Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), Farid Ahmad Tarar, represented Pakistan at the 2026 National Fair Competition Conference of China in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province.
The Chairman presented the attributes of Pakistan’s competition regime, institutional reforms and investment facilitation efforts to the high-level international gathering of competition authority heads, senior regulators and experts, said a release issued here on Saturday.
The two-day conference, held on September 7–8 2026 under the theme “Unified National Market, Fair Competition for the Future,” was hosted by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). The conference brought together heads and senior representatives of competition authorities from China, Brazil, France, Georgia, South Korea, Russia, Singapore and other jurisdictions.
Addressing the conference, the Chairman emphasized that strong competition institutions are increasingly significant for investment, innovation, productivity and sustainable economic growth, while ensuring that the benefits of competitive markets ultimately reach consumers. He outlined CCP’s ongoing transformation towards more proactive, evidence-based and effective enforcement.
He highlighted CCP’s shift towards proactive and intelligence-led enforcement, including the establishment of the Market Intelligence Unit (MIU), which has identified more than 225 potential competition cases across sectors.
The Commission is increasingly focusing its enforcement resources on market conduct that can have wider economic and consumer impact, including cartels, abuse of dominance, deceptive marketing practices and emerging competition concerns in digital markets.
The Chairman underscored that competition enforcement and investment facilitation are mutually reinforcing. During the same period, CCP issued 121 merger clearance orders, facilitating approximately Rs29.65 billion in foreign direct investment, and granted 83 exemptions for legitimate business arrangements.
The Chairman also highlighted the growing importance of digital markets, artificial intelligence, big data and algorithms in competition enforcement.
He said CCP is strengthening its capabilities to address emerging competition issues in these areas, with its 2026–27 priorities including a Digital Markets Competition Framework and market studies on e-commerce, fintech and digital advertising.
As part of his engagements in Xi’an, Chairman CCP held a bilateral meeting with SAMR Vice Minister Shu Wei to discuss emerging competition issues in emerging sectors, enforcement capacity, and deeper Pakistan-China institutional cooperation.
The meeting reviewed implementation of the existing MoU on Anti-Monopoly Cooperation, with both authorities exploring stronger technical collaboration and capacity building in cartel detection, merger control, digital markets, market intelligence, economic analysis, advocacy, and staff exchanges.
The Chairman said deeper CCP-SAMR cooperation would strengthen both institutions’ ability to respond to increasingly interconnected and digital markets, while contributing to a competitive and predictable environment for expanding Pakistan-China trade, investment and economic cooperation.
