I. The Fulfillment of the APEC Competition Policy and Law Database

On January 27, 1997, the APEC member economies accepted an offer from Chinese Taipei to set up the APEC Competition Policy and Law Database. This database is in principle completed with the inclusion of the 18 member economies' information on competition issues which were arranged within 14 categories in January, 1999. Chinese Taipei announced the completion for public access at the Competition Policy Workshop in May, 1999. In early 1999, three new APEC member economies, Peru, Vietnam and Russia, were invited to join the establishment of the database. To date, Peru's page has been almost completed. Because the deadline for full completion of the new members' pages were supposed to be completed by the end of 1999 (as endorsed at the CTI meeting in February, 1999), Chinese Taipei would like to continue seeking Vietnam and Russia's cooperation with the inclusion of their information.
The Completion of this database demonstrates the close cooperative relationship that exits among member economies for the accomplishment of the first section of collection actions in the Osaka Action Agenda. Not only can member economies promote dialogue and study other APEC member economies' competition policies and/or laws through this database, but also the private sector, including academic organizations and business enterprises, will be able to retrieve useful information from the database for improving trade and investment.

II. Future Cooperation From Member Economies

With the establishment phase of the database completed, the main task now is its maintenance. Chinese Taipei requests for all member economies' continuing support to update information quarterly. Currently, some member economies are initiating their competition laws and some are revising or drafting their laws. This information is crucial to the dialogue among member economies and the business community. Chinese Taipei requests that each member economy which submits its updated information for inclusion in the database do so at their earliest convenience, so the database will provide the most updated and valuable information to the users.
The development of competition policies and laws of the APEC member economies is always important to other international organizations and other non-APEC competent authorities as well. To provide the experience of competition policies and laws to other organizations, the database has established links with other organizations such as the OECD, EC and other key organizations. The database includes a "What's New" section to be used as an interface for APEC member economies delivering their perspectives to the world. Therefore, Chinese Taipei would like member economies to provide their activity information or other new developments on competition issues for posting on the "What's New" section to all member economies as well as other concerned groups all over the world.