Members of the Milli Majlis Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee had a meeting with officials of the State Anti-Monopoly Action and Consumer Market Supervision Service on 1 April.

First, the parliamentary committee chairman Tahir Mirkishili announced that the meeting was dedicated to discussion of the competitive environment reinforcement, measures to counter monopolist encroachments, the struggle against inflation and price-hiking, and the state of affairs in the field of state procurement. Those topics are rather pressing and are raised when the parliament meets in plenary as well as committee sessions and meetings with specific electors and citizens in general, according to Mr Mirkishili.

Besides, the committee head touched on adjusting the effective competition legislation so it would meet the demands of the day, streamlining the legislation on state procurement and the need for changes in the relevant practices and habits.

The head of the State Anti-Monopoly Action and Consumer Market Supervision Service Mammad Abbasbayli talked about what the Service had been doing in the past period discouraging monopolism and unscrupulous competition, controlling state procurements and the quality assurance infrastructure, and protecting consumer rights.

Besides, Mr Abbasbayli told about determination of commercial mark-ups in the socially-significant products value-generating chains, the measures to curb inflation processes, reinforcement of the state control over the natural monopolies and the optimisation of the work done in telecommunications, especially, in the Internet services.

The head of the State Service also informed the meeting participants of the National Strategic Programme of Competition Promotion and Anti-Monopolism, the on-going drafting of the Code of Competition and the adjustment of the legislation concerning state procurements and domestic trade. He then mentioned the new approaches to all those areas proposed recently.

Comments followed from Tahir Mirkishili, his deputy Ali Masimli and the members of his committee Rufat Guliyev, Aydin Huseynov, Etibar Aliyev, Mahir Abbaszade, Vugar Bayramov and Mashhur Mammadov. They spoke about the difficulties accompanying putting products in the markets, expanding the application of quality standards and price optimisation in the telecommunications’ field. They, besides, put forth their ideas about anti-monopolism, prevention of over-pricing, promotion of a sound competition ambience, touching up the state procurement tendering procedures c/w digitalising them more and, last but not least, the hurdles local production companies encounter when attempting to bid in those tenders.

The MPs Elnur Allahverdiyev, Igbal Mammadov, Mazahir Efendiyev and Anar Mammadov as well as executives of the aforementioned State Service and other officials took part in the meeting as well.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis