Scholars from Chulalongkorn University and Thammasat University yesterday said the government should take the opportunity in the absence of a constitution to exercise its power to force giant retailers to cease their expansion of new retail outlets.

Then the government should devise medium and long-term measures to promote fair competition between big and small retailers, they said.

However, it should not hasten to impose a law to govern the industry, but must come up with clear principles and objectives, said Nipon Poapongsakorn, associate professor at the Economics Faculty of Thammasat University.

He said the rapid expansion of the giant retail businesses had prompted a 15-per-cent annual decline in the number of small retail shops, according to his study covering 2001-2002. He added that the same expansion had also caused a drop in retail shops' sales value by 7 per cent per year during the same study period.

"Development of the law governing the retail industry must not favour any groups in particular," he said.

A law lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, Kanuengnit Sribua-iam, urged the government to take into account the social impact and consumers' voices when drafting the retail business law.

"The expansion of the giant retailers has affected the relationship between vendors in fresh markets and their clients as the latter have turned their backs on the markets and now rely on hypermarkets when buying things," she said.

Thammasat University's political science lecturer Patcharee Siroroj said the existing retail business law, the anti-monopoly law, the zoning law and the consumer-protection law, should be integrated in a way that they could ensure fair competition among all parties.

Meanwhile, Sethaporn Cusripituck, a member of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), said yesterday that the government and private telecom operators should seize the opportunity in the absence of a constitution to create fair competition relating to private telecom concessions.

"Article 335 (2) of the former constitution, which was revoked by the [September 19] coup, stated that each telecom concession must be honoured by the relevant parties until the end of the concession terms, but now the concessions can be amended as they are no longer protected, following the revocation of the constitution," Sethaporn said during a seminar "The Telecom Industry two years after the NTC's Establishment'' hosted by the Telecom Association of Thailand.

Past governments promoted the idea of amending the private telecom operators' concession contracts to enable the concessionaires to compete on the same conditions as new entrants which operate under NTC licences.

The state concession owners have argued that amendments to the concessions are impossible while the concessions are protected by constitutional law. Later, the idea of concession conversion faded following public opposition to the idea that it would favour some telecom giants with political links.

Recently the Information and Communications Technology Ministry said the private concessionaires could ask him to cancel their contracts if they feel that the concessions have made them lose competitiveness to NTC licensees.

Vichai Bencharongkul, managing director of data communications provider Benchajinda and former co-chief executive of Total Access Communication, said in support of Sethaporn that now was a good opportunity for all parties to enable fair competition in the telecom industry.

Kosol Petsuwan, honorary president of the telecom association, also urged the NTC to consult with the government on how to solve the unclear issues related to the absence of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

The NBC was set up last year before the Central Administrative Court ruled to revoke the process of selecting 14 candidates for the seven seats on the NBC. The ruling prompted a fresh selection of NBC commissioners.

The NTC remains uncertain that it can develop policies relating to broadcast frequency spectrums as the frequency-allocation law mandates that the NBC and the NTC jointly allocate broadcasting and telecommunications space and prescribe spectrum rules.

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