Alyaksandr Lukashenka on June 3 signed a presidential edict transforming the Ministry of Trade into a Ministry of Anti-monopoly Regulation.
According to the presidential press office, the economy ministry’s pricing policy department and the anti-monopoly and pricing policy departments of the regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee will be transferred to the new ministry.
The ministry’s functions include developing competition in commodity markets, countering monopolistic abuse, regulating natural monopolies, regulating prices and charges, controlling and regulating the consumer market, public purchases and advertising, and protecting consumers’ rights.
The establishment of such a ministry was caused by the need to protect fair competition and create “civilized and effective” instruments of price formation, the press office said.
The new ministry’s key priority is to protect the domestic market of the country through creating “equal competition conditions for all participants,” the press office said.
The Ministry of Trade should be turned into a “powerful antimonopoly agency,” Mr. Lukashenka suggested while delivering his annual presidential address to the nation and the National Assembly in late April.
The Belarusian leader said that the ministry would encourage healthy competition and prevent abuses on the part of monopolists, which he said would make it impossible to unfoundedly raise prices.
