One of the main regulatory bodies vowed yesterday to crack down on business bribery and preserve fair market competition.

Zhong Youping, deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said his administration will work harder to root out commercial bribery in fields that are closely related to people's lives.

Addressing a national conference, Zhong said soaring medicine and drug prices in recent years have prompted numerous complaints from the public.

Statistics by the administration showed that medicine, agricultural materials and the publishing sectors have become prone to bribery, Zhong said.

Last year, industry and commerce authorities at various levels investigated and closed 9,086 cases involving business bribery involving 1.936 billion yuan ($248 million), an increase of 277 percent and 111 percent respectively over 2005.

Out of those investigations, investigators forwarded 48 cases of suspected crimes to the judicial sector last year, compared to just one case in 2005.

Progress has also been made in cases involving medicine purchases and sales.

A total of 1,993 cases were solved, accounting for 22 percent of the total and involving 499 million yuan ($64 million).

Zhong criticized some local industry and commerce authorities for resisting big cases and for not faithfully enforcing laws.

"Business bribery in some industries and places has formed hidden rules which many local industry and commerce bureaus have failed to discover," Zhong said.

Zhong said the authorities would strengthen supervision of the agricultural materials trade with a focus on chemical fertilizer, pesticide and seeds in order to safeguard farmers' interests.

Besides fighting business bribery, the administration wants to make bigger strides in combating unfair competition, such as business swindling, smuggling and illegal assembling of automobiles.

The administration solved 2,638 cases of smuggling and selling of smuggled goods last year valued at 355 million yuan ($46 million)

Unfair competition also captured the attention of investigators.

In 2006, the administration investigated and solved 42,500 cases of unfair competition involving 3.18 billion yuan ($408 million), and 12,384 cases of intellectual rights violation involving 206 million yuan ($26 million).

Zhong said the administration will soon launch a campaign against trademark counterfeiting.

Source: China Daily