Competition and Global Competitiveness:

This paper takes a look at the experiences of Romania and the Philippines, two countries which have established a Competition Commission to promote and maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct. Competition is distinguished from competitiveness; the former is a type of market structure while the later argues that the economic competitiveness of the country is determined by the business environment. In 2016, the Philippines created the Philippine Competition Commission to promote and maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct. Meanwhile, the Romanian Competition Council which was established in 1996 enforces and ensures the application of the national and community rules on competition. The paper also explores the trend in the Global Competiveness Index for the two countries. Both countries scored best in the Basic Requirement sub-index but fared poorly in the Sophistication and Innovation Factors sub-index. For the period 2012-2017, both countries had continuously posted the highest scores for Macroeconomic Environment and Health and Primary Education. The Philippines did poorly in Infrastructure and Innovation. For Romania, the lowest scores were for Institutions and Innovation.