ProCompetencia Reports Progress on Competition Policy Over the Past Five Years
The head of ProCompetencia presented her 2021-2026 accountability report, highlighting steps to build a stronger competition culture in the Dominican Republic.
Key points
- María Elena Vásquez Taveras, president of ProCompetencia's Board, presented the 2021-2026 report.
- The Dominican Republic adopted its National Competition Policy under Decree 196-25, becoming the first Latin American country to do so.
- An OECD and IDB peer review served as the basis for the institution's reforms.
- ProCompetencia delivered a draft Antitrust and Economic Competition Organic Law to the Executive Branch in February.
Over the past five years, the Dominican Republic has made progress in building a culture of competition, according to María Elena Vásquez Taveras, president of the Board of the National Commission for the Defense of Competition (ProCompetencia). She made the point during her 2021-2026 accountability report, presented in Santo Domingo as part of Competition Week.
Vásquez Taveras said that when she took office she found a young institution. The law was enacted in 2008 but was not fully applied until 2017. In her view, the institution has since reached a level of maturity that places it among the highest international standards.
One of the first steps was requesting a peer review from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). That assessment identified gaps in the legal framework and areas for improvement in the country's competition policy. Based on it, ProCompetencia drafted the National Competition Policy, approved under Decree 196-25, making the Dominican Republic the first country in Latin America to adopt such an instrument.
The institution also drafted the Anteproject of the Organic Antitrust and Economic Competition Law, which was delivered to the Executive Branch in February of this year. Vásquez Taveras thanked President Luis Abinader for backing the policy and for prioritizing the issue in the country's development agenda.
The presentation took place at a gathering that brings together authorities from Latin America and the Caribbean, international organizations, academics, and public and private sector representatives to discuss the challenges of competition policy.
Why it matters
Stronger competition can lead to better prices and services for consumers, though the available information does not detail specific effects on household costs.