The recent pledge by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to break more administrative monopolies next year represents China's resolve to honor its World Trade Organization commitments, said an editorial in Beijing Youth Daily. Excerpts follow:

Administrative monopoly, mainly in the forms of industrial and regional monopoly, has resulted in heavy economic losses even more than those resulting from official's bribery or embezzlement.

According to statistics, monopoly industries grabbed 53 billion yuan (US$6.4 billion) in excessive fees from consumers from 1998 to 2001. Banking on government power, administrative monopoly usually erects stern market entry standards and controls the supply of products or services, thus forcing consumers to pay more for these products or services.

Therefore, once the monopoly is broken, investment is expected to flood into these industries to increase supply, and suppressed demand in these monopoly-plagued sectors will also soar to propel the overall economic advancement.

But the anti-monopoly campaign is bound to be an uphill battle. Governments play a leading role in the campaign, but some local governments are usually the main vested interests group behind the administrative monopoly. Public scrutiny by consumers, enterprises and media alike in the drive is therefore urgent and necessary.

The law will put the country's anti-monopoly offensive on a legal and systematic footing. In addition, the pending law will also be able to prevent multinational giants from using their market advantages to manipulate the price and quantity of their products in the domestic market.