The 1990s was the decade of telecommunications liberalization in Asia-Pacific, including Hong Kong, and the 2000s is likely to be the decade of regulatory stock taking, review and revision. Some liberal reforms have gone well, notably in the cellular mobile and international markets. Some reforms have been achieved belatedly, such as the elimination of subsidies and the rebalancing of tariffs. And some reforms have been problematic to say the least. The application of competition policy is one problem area, and the lack of effective competition in the customer access network or local loop is perhaps the most dismal failure of all. The comfort is to know that this experience is pretty much worldwide, which perhaps means that the source of the problem lies less in regulatory vigilance and application than in the approach itself.
Session One: Asymmetric Regulation
Keynote speaker:
- Yip Hak-kwong, Director of Policy 21 Ltd, University of Hong Kong
Speakers:
- John Ure, Director, Telecommunications Research Project
- Agnes Tan, Director, Legal, Regulatory & Carrier Affairs Division of New T&T
- Stuart Chiron, Director of Regulatory Affairs, PCCW
Session Two: Lessons from Other Markets
Session Chair:
- John Ure, Director of the Telecommunications Research Project, University of Hong Kong
Keynote speaker:
- Andrew Lih, Principal Investigator, Interactive Design Lab, Columbia University
Speakers:
- Richard Fawcett, Partner, Bird & Bird, Hong Kong
- Michael Reede, Partner, Paul Weiss Rifkind, Hong Kong
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