Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently spoke about the costs to the Russian economy of substantial state ownership of businesses.  President Medvedev, according to articles argued that dominance in certain industries limits investment and harms competitiveness.  He called for a reduction in Russia’s government ownership stakes. 

The ICN issued a report on state-created monopolies in 2006 and recommended practices on State-Created Monopolies in 2008 in English, en français, en español.  The ICN report gathered recognition from a number of countries that reducing the role of state-created monopolies could bring lower prices, improved quality, and increased innovation, and promoted other objectives as well.  The ICN recommended practices encouraged competition agencies to apply dominance rules against state-created monopolies in the same way as they do against private enterprises and to engage in advocacy activities to promote competition through a country’s liberalization process.