At the last CTI meeting in Victoria back in January, Chinese Taipei presented a prototype of the APEC Database, to provide an opportunity for member economies a preliminary glimpse into what the data base will look like once it is fully established within the near future. Since our last CTI meeting, Chinese Taipei wishes to thank all the member economies who have provided us with valuable comments and suggestions on the database.

Much progress has been underway since Victoria, administratively and especially, in the area of technical capabilities. Administrative-wise, back in March, we received another request for an extension of the deadline for data submission from July this year to September. Chinese Taipei is willing to extend the data submission process for the additional three months. In addition, the identification codes for member economies listed in the appendix of the "Standards for Data preparation by APEC Member Economies" handed-out to all members in January, have been revised to conform to APEC standards.

In the area of technical capabilities, three features of the APEC database has been expanded to improve performance of the database.

First of all, the search engine has been expanded, the search can now search to a string of words or phrases. For example, the search for "competition policy" rather tan searching for "competition" and "policy" as separate keywords. Our database has also been upgraded to be compatible with this expanded search feature.

Secondly, we have revised the "Standards for Data preparation by APEC Member Economies" (Attachment �) to automate to conversion of electronic files received from member economies to facilitate updating of the APEC database. Some modifications and changes have been made with respect to the standards member economies are required to meet when forwarding data to Chinese Taipei. May we urge members to go over the document carefully and let us know at the earliest possibility of any quires or problems.

Thirdly, we are appraising and evaluating workstations and relevant software and hardware equipment. This exercise will improve the overall capabilities of the APEC database such as enhancing the search functions.

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Implementation Plan for the Database

A document entitled " The Implementation Plan for Establishment of the APEC Competition Law and Database" is attached hereto as Attachment I. This documents is based on the proposal that Chinese Taipei previously submitted to provide members its plan for establishment of the database, with modifications to reflect the comments received from various member economies. It is worthy to note that the deadline for submission of the initial information has been extended to the end of September this year. It is also important to know that the Implementation plan is structured, according to the current APEC work on competition laws and policies. The database may need be expanded in the future, in keeping pace with the APEC work in this area. A possible addition to the database in the near future could be data relating to deregulation. Also, when database is expanded to cover confidential information, there will be a need to establish a mechanism to control access to the database.

For keeping the documentary arrangement for the database exercise in order, this Implementation Plan is given a code number of APEC/Competition Database/001.

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Standards for Data Preparation by APEC Member Economies

This document is prepared to guide members in preparing their data. The first draft of this document was provided to members at the last CTI meeting in Victoria. Modifications and changes have been made since January; the revised version is attached hereto as Attachment �. This document is given a code number of APEC/Competition Database/002.

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APEC/Competition Database/001

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COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY

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Chinese Taipei

[Quebec, May 19, 1997]

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Background

The first section of collective actions in the Osaka Action Agenda states that, "APEC economies will, gather information and promote dialogue on and study,�� the objectives, necessity, role and operation of each APEC economy's competition policy and/or laws and administrative procedures, thereby establishing a database on competition policy;��" This suggests that APEC economies have mutually identified the importance of information availability in the implementation of competition law and/or policy. This is because APEC economies are at widely different stages in the implementation of competition law and/or policy. At one end, competition law has been enforced for more than a century while at the other, discussions are just beginning for the enactment of such laws and policies. In order to reduce this gap and to achieve Bogor Declaration objectives of free trade and investment by 2010/2020, it has been recognized amongst member economies that an information gathering exercise and the establishment of a common database are necessary to secure the set objectives.

These reasons reflect the importance of a common information source, for economies to share, to exchange view and experiences while at the same time, to facilitate the making and the enforcement of competition law and/or policy.

On January 27,1997, Chinese Taipei had established a "Competition Policy Information and Research Center." One of the features of the Center is a competition law and/or policy database. This database has the potential to complement to information gathering exercise identified by APEC economies in the first section of the Osaka Action Agenda. The combination of the two tasks, APEC economies' information gathering exercise and the resources of the Center, will be of mutual benefits.

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An APEC competition law and/or policy database will include all information on member economies' competition policy and/or law. The information available at each enforcement agency, such as laws and regulations, guidelines, and industry information. In addition, there should be coordination and cooperation with other international organizations for information exchange and other possible forms of integration.

The database will offer its service and advice not only to the relevant agencies of member economies but also to all academic organizations, businesses, and other private sector concerns.

Contents of the database

The contents of the database will include fourteen categories as follows.

1. Policy statements, inclusive of the Individual Action Plan on competition policy statements by heads of competition authorities.
2. Competition policies / laws, inclusive of guidelines, explanations and proposals for amendments.
3. Organizational structure, inclusive of statutes establishing responsible agencies for the enforcement of competition law, division of responsibilities between departments, number of employees, task force, enquire point, district offices and other affiliated organizations.
4. Decision guidelines, inclusive of rules and guidelines used to reach decisions.
5. Administrative procedures, inclusive of investigation procedures for complaints filed by private parties, merger application, applications for exemptions; the issuance of formal decision letters and notifications.
6. List of publications and subscription details, inclusive of newsletters, journals and magazines.
7. Q&As, the 100 questions to be equally divided between those common to all economies and those particular to individual economies. The 50 common questions are based on the survey previously conducted by New Zealand. The individual economies are responsible for compiling the other 50 questions particular to their own economy.
8. Decisions of administrative or quasi-judicial agencies, inclusive of decisions, approvals, advisory opinions, and interpretation rulings. In general, each case description should not exceed 2000 words.
9. Judicial cases, such as court decisions relevant to competition law; likewise, each case description should not exceed 2000 words.
10. International and/or bilateral cooperation arrangements, inclusive of agreements, arrangements, memoranda, letters of understanding and other relevant documents.
11. Lists of academic organizations, specialists and academics. This category may involve individual privacy and can be provided on a voluntary basis.
12. Issues related to competition laws, inclusive of consumer protection laws and other related trade issues such as antidumping laws.
13. Statistical data, inclusive of statistics on complaints, decisions, requests for advisory opinions or interpretation, applications for merger approvals or exemption and other related statistics.
14. Announcement, an area for all members to announce the latest related activities which may be interested to other members, such as meetings, seminars, and news.

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Timeframe

The database is expected to be initially established by the end of 1997. Member economies are requested to provide their readily available information to Chinese Taipei as soon as possible. It is hoped that by the time the database is first established, it will contain at least the following:

1. Policy statements, inclusive of the Individual Action Plan on competition policy and deregulation, and policy statements by heads of competition authorities.
2. Competition policies/laws, inclusive of guidelines, explanations and proposals for amendments.
3. Organizational structure, inclusive of statutes establishing responsible agencies for the enforcement of competition law, division of responsibilities between departments, number of empolyees, task force, enquiry point, branch offices and other affiliated organizations.
4. Decision guidelines, inclusive of rules and guidelines used to reach decisions.
5. Administrative procedures, inclusive of investigation procedures for complaints filed by private parties, merger applications, applications for exemptions; the issuance of formal decision letters and notifications.
6. List of publications and subscription details, inclusive of newsletters, journals and magazines.
7. Q&As, the 100 questions to be equally divided between those common to all economies and those particular to individual economies. The 50 common questions are base on the survey previously conducted by New Zealand. The individual economies are responsible for compiling the other 50 questions particular to their own economies.

Members are further requested to provide (I) this set of information to Chinese Taipei by September 1997, and (ii) a timetable for provision of their respective data other than the ones listed above.

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Submission of Data by APEC Economies

Chinese Taipei will assume full responsibilities and costs incurred from both computer hard and soft wares for the establishment of the database. All information should be provided by member economies in the English language and itemized with the categories listed above. The information should be in plain text files and sent directly to Chinese Taipei preferably via FTP (File Transfer protocol), or via E-mail, provided the E-mail address is informed in advanced. (Please refer to Standards for Data Preparation by APEC Member Economies)

To ensure that the database carries up-to-data information, may we request member economies to forward new or amended information once they become available. Otherwise, the electronic information will be updated semi-annually.

Member economies which have already created �ome Pages' should provide the relevant addresses. In addition, to make information on basic competition law, news summaries, up-coming events such as seminars, public hearings, lectures accessible to Internet users.

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Structure of the Database

Electronic data will divided into two main sections. One section by APEC economies and the other by the fourteen categories. Information can be browsed either by APEC economies or by the fourteen categories. In addition, the database will have a search engine for keyword searches.

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APEC/competition Databse/002

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Standards for Data Preparation by APEC Member Economies

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���.File Formats:

1. Text files: Save all edited files under plain text; don't compress blank
2. Image: .JPG or .GIF
3. If compress is on, please save files as self-extract files (otherwise, please notify us the compressing tools via E-Mail).

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�. File Name:

嚗� 嚗� 嚗� 嚗� 嚗� 嚗� 嚗� 嚗� �� 嚗� 嚗� 嚗�
� �     �             �                  ��� File name extension (Save text files
� �     �             �                       as TXT, and keep original file name
� �     �             �                       extension for non-text files)
� �     �             ��� Member Economy ID No. (See Appendix A for
� �     �                  Identification Codes for Member Economies,
� �     �                  e.g. Australia = AU, Canada = CDA)
� �     ��� Control No. (Sequence No. to transmit batch data)
� ��� General Category (see Appendix B for the 14 General
� Categories, e.g. Policy Statement = A, Q & As = G).
��� A: New, U: Updated, D: Deleted (A, U, D) the existing files.

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1. File format:

1st line of file:

嚗賂撓嚗� , 嚗� 嚗� 嚗� 嚗� , 嚗賂撓嚗� , 嚗賂撓嚗�
�           � � � �      �              ��� Sequence No. which the file will be placed
�           � � � �      �                   in a specific subcategory (000 for unspecified)
�           � � � �      ��� Sequence No. which the file will be placed in a specific
�           � � � �           general category (000 for unspecified)
�           � � � ��� Document Attributes (A: non-image files, B: plain image files, C: text + image files)
�           � � ��� The PLATFORM in which the file is edited (See Appendix C for platform codes)
�           � ��� General Category (See Appendix B for the 14 General Categories)
�           ��� A: New, U: Updated, D: Deleted (A, U, D) the existing files.
��� Member Economy ID No. (if the code is in two digits, leave the third digit blank)

2nd line of file: If PLATFORM in line 1 is "X" (others), specify the software name, otherwise leave it blank.

3rd line of file: If the file is to be placed in a sub-category, please specify the title of the sub-category, otherwise leave it blank.

H#

{ Title (no limit on number of lines)

H##

I#

{ If this file contains image, please specify the filename in this line (one line per image )

{ If the file contains no image or the file is to be deleted, leave it blank

1##

P#

{ text begins here

{ mark<IMAGE= . >wherever you want to put the image files inside the text}

{ Mark <B> at the start of each title

{ If this file is to be deleted, don't underline anything.

P##

2. Other Requirements:

1. All files must be in English.
2. For easy reading, please limit the file under 50 KB.
3. All document headings should be capitalized.
4. The submitting Member Economy's name must follow the document heading.

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1. Via FTP:ID and Password of each Member Economy will be mailed to each Member Economy's responsible person.
2. If FTP is not available, E-Mail the file in the form of attachment of Chinese Taipei apecsys@apeccp.org.tw (E-Mail address of each Member Economy should be given to this organization beforehand for future data transmission).
3. Mail other electronic media (such as floppy disks, etc.) to Chinese Taipei, Attn: Director of Planning Dept., 14F, No. 2-2, Sec. 1, Chi-Nan Rd., Taipei, Taiwan.

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�. Miscellaneous:

1. Please inform the FTC of Chinese Taipei via E-Mail (E-Mail address:apecsys @apeccp. org.tw) if necessary.
2. Regardless of the transmission method, the file content must follow format of �. 1.
3. Each document should be sent separately (each file contains only one document).
4. When transmit a file, Member Economy should keep a copy of the file for future updating, or to download the document at this web site to text file, update, then transmit.

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�. Examples:

New Zealand transmits three files via FTP, the first file is to update an existing file, the second file is a new one, and third file is to be deleted. The file names are: UM001NZ.TXT, AH002NZ.TXT, and DG003NZ.TXT respectively. The following is to describe the updated, new and deleted files:

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1. Example of File Updating:

• Member Economy New Zealand wants to update a file, which is the third file under the Category "Statistical Data"

• Title of the original file is : Statistics on Cases Received (February 1995).

• The new file is in plain text, edited and saved under Win 95.

• In this case, please label the file and revise the title of the file as the followings:

File name �� UM001NZ.TXT

NZ , UMCA, 003, 000

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Statistics on Cases Received (May 1996)

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1. STATISTICS ON CASES RECEIVED (MAY 1996)

1. New Zealand

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�﹨efore update:

• Statistical Data

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2�色�色�色�色��.

3. Statistics on Cases Received (February 1995)

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�∕fter updata:

• Statistical Data

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3. Statistics on Cases Received (May 1996)

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2. Example of Creating a New File:

• Member Economy New Zealand creates a new file for the category "Decision of Administrative or Quasi-judicial Agencies". The new data file would be placed as the second file under the first sub-category "Decisions".
• Title of this file is : Administrative Decisions on Concerted Actions.
• This file contains two image files, edited and saved under CDC NOS.
• To create this new file, please mark the file in the following manner:

File name �� AH002NZ.TXT:

NZ , AHXC, 001, 002

CDC NOS

Decisions

H#

Administrative Decisions on Concerted Actions

H##

I#

FLOW1.JPG

FLOW2.JPG

1##

P#

1. Administrative Decisions on Concerted Actions

1. New Zealand

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<IMAGE = FLOW1.JPG>

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<IMAGE = FLOW2.JPG>

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• 嚗愣is file is located at:

• Decision of Administrative of Quasi-judicial Agencies

1. Decisions
1. �色�色�色�色�色�色��.
2. Administrative Decisions on Concerted Actions
2. �色�色�色�色�色�色��..
3. �色�色�色�色�色�色��...

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Member Economy	Id. Code
Australia	AUS
Brunei Darussalam	BD
Canada	CDA
Chile	CHL
People's Republic of China	PRC
Hong Kong	HK
Indonesia	INA
Japan	JPN
Republic of Korea	ROK
Malaysia	MAS
Mexico	MEX
New Zealand	NZ
Papua New Guinea	PNG
Republic of the Philippines	RP
Singapore	SIN
Chinese Taipei	CT
Thailand	THA
U. S. A.	USA

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General Category	Id. Code
Policy Statements	A
Competition Policies/Laws	B
Organizational Structure	C
Administrative Procedures	D
Decision Guidelines	E
List of Publications and Subscription Details	F
Q & As	G
Decisions of Administrative or Quasi-judicial Agencies	H
Judicial Cases	I
International and/or Bilateral Cooperation Arrangements	J
List of Academics and Specialists	K
Issues Related to Competition Laws	L
Statistical Data	M
Announcement	N

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Platform	Id. Code
Macintosh	A
MS-DOS or Windows 3.1	B
Windows 95 or NT	C
UNIX : AIX	D
UNIX : BSD 2.1	E
UNIX : HP-UX	F
UNIX : IRIX 5	G
UNIX : IRIX 6	H
UNIX : Linux	I
UNIX : Digital 3.2	J
UNIX : Sun OS 4.1.3	K
UNIX : SPARC Solaris 2.3	L
UNIX : SPARC Solaris 2.4	M
OS/2 Warp	N
Open VMS	O
Others	X

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