Outputs

1) A Workshop

A two-day workshop will be held during the project period, inviting at least 40 representatives from APEC economies to participate. The workshop is likely to be held in February or March 2026, and the tentative cities to host it include Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu. The workshop will refer to the site of SOM1. The workshop will explore how to effectively utilize competition assessment tools in the context of emerging new forms of monopolistic conduct to enhance the effectiveness of competition regulation and enforcement, thereby promoting fair competition and healthy development in relevant industries. The target participants of the Workshop include officials from competition institutions of various economies, scholars familiar with competition and market research,as well as experts in technical fields such as statistics and computer science. The general agenda includes four thematic forums and two to four group discussions. Four specialized forums will feature no fewer than eight experts delivering keynote speeches, covering literature research and related theories of market study, methods and techniques of market study, and how marketstudy can be effectively integrated with competition. The two to four discussions will be guided by no fewer than two guiding experts. Through exploring the application of market learning methods and techniques in the field of fair competition, guiding opinions from the participants on how to apply market learning to fair competition and the various tasks of competition institutions will be formed. During the discussion session, a questionnaire survey will also be conducted, and a feedbacksession will be set up at the end of the Workshop, which include a final sessionthat recaps the key learnings and facilitates a discussion among participants about what they gained

most from the event and how they can/plan to apply new information, resources or learning in their roles.

2) A Research Report

A research report on competition assessment and competition regulatory & enforcement, including best practices and survey results in related areas. The report may consist of minimum 25 pages excludingannexes. The reportis roughly composed of the following parts: The first is a literature review on market research. The second is the analysis of the application of market research by various economies. The third is the connection between market researchand the laws and regulations of various economies;. The fourth category includes typical market research plans and demonstration cases. The fifth is how to use market research as a tool to provide guidance for institutions in various economies. The report will also includethe results of questionnaires and data analysis.

3) Research Work

The range of research includes the theory and evolution of market study, the coverage of market study, the method and path of market study, the case of market study, the situation of market study and the help of the economies. The methods will consist online questionnaires, literature reviews, interviews, focus group discussions. To ensure a comprehensive reflection of the situation of each economy and benefit all economies, we will conduct research on each APEC member economy. We will set up a discussion session in the working group agenda and take the opportunity of the workinggroup to completeinterviews and on-site questionnaire surveys. We will also complete the questionnaire survey in digital form and eventually form a research report.

Outcome

1) Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of how economies perceive competition issues and related areas of competition enforcement from both a research perspective (e.g., laws and regulations, enforcement cases) and a practical perspective (e.g., setting evaluation indicators, implementing evaluation analysis). They will use these insights and experiences to guide their own work and therebypromote the optimization of competition environments in their economies.

2) Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how to utilize knowledgeand skills relatedto competition assessment, such as economics and statistics, to enhance the efficiency of their dailywork and the effectiveness of competition regulation and enforcement. This will enablethem to employmore methods and tools when handling and reviewing relevantcases.

3) The project outcomes will provide reference for member economies to optimize their business environments and promote domestic economic development. By analyzing key sectors and industries, it will help relevant agenciesin member economies gain deeper insights into industrial chaintrends and competitive dynamics, identify competitive risks proactively, and foster a fair competitive market environment across the Asia-Pacific region.

Beneficiaries

Participants in this workshopwill include antitrustpolicy officials from member economiesof the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Through a combination of research perspectives (such as competition laws and enforcement cases) and practical perspectives (such as the development of analytical indicators and the selection of statistical methods), participants will gain a deep understanding of the practical approaches and valuable experiences in market studies across member economies. They will apply these insights to guide their own work and drive the optimization and upgrading of the competitive environment in their respective economies. Additionally, participants will learnmethods to applyknowledge and skillsrelated to market studies, such as economics and statistics, to enhance their daily work efficiency and regulatory enforcement effectiveness. This will enablethem to flexibly apply more methods and tools when handling and reviewing relevant cases. For the primary beneficiary factors, participants will directly understand the principles and methods of market study and master these methods and techniques through discussions and workshops, which will provide direct assistance to their own work. During the discussion process, face-to-face communication with experts can help participants find solutions to practical problems. As for the second benefit factor, since the project will eventually produce a reference report, this report will include guidelines on how to apply market study methods derived from workshop discussions, as well as suggestions for working in various economies. Through the guidelines and suggestions in the practice report, member economies can further analyzethe competitive situationof the relevant market, predict competitive risks in advance, and thereby control potential anti-competitive issues in advance, so as to maintain fair competition and development in the economies' markets.