By Jet Damazo-Santos ( October 18, 2022, 09:50 GMT | Insight) -- Malaysia is considering a mandatory merger notification threshold of at least 250 million ringgit ($53 million), according to the country's competition chief, though he said the implementation of merger control would now happen by the first quarter of 2024 at the earliest, following the dissolution of the country's parliament. Ismail Iskandar also said there is greater imperative to introduce merger control under the upcoming Asean Framework Agreement on Competition.Malaysia is considering a mandatory merger notification threshold of at least 250 million ringgit ($53 million), according to the country's competition chief, though he said the implementation of merger control would now happen by the first quarter of 2024 at the earliest, following the dissolution of the country's parliament. "The number in our mind for now is ranging between 250 to 300 million Malaysian ringgit, that is around 50 to 75 million US dollars," Iskandar Ismail, the chief executive of the Malaysia Competition Commission, or MyCC, told a webinar* today. "But I don't know whether that will change or increase because, as you know, the US dollar is getting stronger each day… So we will see. I think by next year, we want to decide on the threshold." During a public consultation forum on the MyCC's proposed competition amendments last June, lawyers told MLex that figures ranging from 200 million to 300 million ringgit were floated (see here). But this will only be decided after the amendments are passed, when the practice standards are drafted. Those long-awaited amendments, which will create a hybrid merger notification regime and give the MyCC stronger enforcement powers, were targeted to be tabled in parliament before the end of the year following disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic (see here). However, that timeline has now again been delayed given the early dissolution of parliament this month to pave the way for general elections next month (see here). "We are actually in the process of ironing out the language of the bill, so that we can produce the final draft so that it can be tabled to parliament soon," Ismail said. But because of the political developments, he said they are now targeting to submit it to parliament within the first quarter of 2023. With the one-year grace period written into the planned amendments, that means the merger control regime can only be implemented by the first quarter of 2024 at the earliest. The MyCC began seriously considering introducing merger control in 2018, after the controversial Grab and Uber merger that it found itself unable to act on. But Ismail said there is also greater imperative to introduce merger control under the upcoming Asean Framework Agreement on Competition. "We have this Asean blueprint to ensure that everybody will implement all three pillars of competition law," he said, referring to the prohibition of cartels, supervision of dominance abuse, and merger control. "And recently, in the Asean senior ministers meeting, we agreed to have this Asean Framework Agreement on Competition, which is primarily based on RCEP [Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership]. This will expand the responsibility of each Asean country in enforcing competition law." Negotiations for the framework agreement were launched in September (see here). Ismail said it will focus on cross-border cooperation, and aims to ensure the consistent implementation of competition principles across the region. "So Malaysia has to step up, and we are ready. It just so happened that there are so many challenges that we are we are facing. First it was the pandemic, and then second year, and then now the parliament has been dissolved," he said. But to underscore their preparations, the MyCC chief said they have already begun recruiting for its upcoming merger control function. "The government has given us the extra budget that we requested," he said, adding that they are looking at a merger unit size of about 30 people. *Antitrust in Asia: One Size Fits All? Concurrences Webinar, Oct. 17, 2022 Please email editors@mlex.com to contact the editorial staff regarding this story, or to submit the names of lawyers and advisers....