The Competition Policy Advisory Group's 2004-2005 annual report will be published tomorrow, highlighting the group's initiatives in the previous year to promote competition.

To ensure that the Government's competition policy caters for present-day circumstances, the group has appointed a Competition Policy Review Committee to review the existing competition policy and the group's composition, terms of reference and operations.

The group also commissioned a consultancy study on the auto-fuel retail market in Hong Kong, a new initiative. The study will assess the competition situation in the auto-fuel retail market in Hong Kong, and examine whether the oil companies involved might have engaged in any anti-competitive practices.

18 competition cases examined

During the year, the advisory group examined 18 competition cases and advised on follow-up action where appropriate.

The group has also continued its efforts to promote the guidelines to maintain a competitive environment and define and tackle anti-competitive practices. It encourages the business sector to develop codes of conduct or self-regulation mechanism for voluntary compliance by each sector on the basis of the guidelines.

To promote competition concepts at schools and among youths, the group organised three briefings for primary school principals and teachers, and teachers of the Economics and the Integrated Humanities courses on the Government's competition policy and competition concepts.

For details of the report, visit the group's website.