The Competition Act of 2004 might, to a certain expect, serve to alert small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore to avoid reaching possible anti-competitive agreements involving abuse of their dominant position in the market by price fixing, bid rigging, market sharing or production control etc.
Not all agreements reached between SMEs are penalized – only those with appreciable impact on competition.
Singapore is an open market because it is easy to register and set up any business and to enter into any market one chooses – except some restricted fields such as backing, finance, and newspaper publishing. For an SME to dominate a market with fixed assets of only $15 million or a labour force of less than 200 staff is extremely difficult, it not impossible.
Globalisation is pushing SMEs to go across borders and venture overseas – which strengthens their competitive behaviour rather than diminishing it .
Tan Kok Leong
Principle
TKL Consulting
Monday, January 9, 2006