MyCC welcomes move to open up coverage of foreign students in private institutions

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) welcomes the Ministry of Education (MOE) move to allow private learning institutions to appoint any insurance firm for coverage of foreign students, considering it a feather in its cap for its advocacy work.
As part of its new policy under the Guideline on Health Examinations and Insurance Coverage, the MOE has allowed private learning institutions to appoint any insurance firms, and or agents of their choice to provide insurance coverage for its foreign students so long as the firms and or agents are registered with the MOE and the insurance packages provided are in line with the MOE's criteria.
In a statement released Friday, MyCC said it had previously received a complaint in relation to an alleged foreclosure of the market for selling of health insurance coverage to foreign students by Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS).
EMGS is a wholly owned subsidiary of the MOE authorised to process Student Pass Applications for international students who wish to study at private higher education institutions in Peninsular Malaysia.
Market foreclosure is an exclusion that results when a downstream buyer is denied access to an upstream supplier (caused from an upstream foreclosure) or when an upstream supplier is denied access to a downstream buyer.
In this situation, the students are the "downstream buyers" denied access to other suppliers of health insurance by EMGS as the "upstream supplier."
MyCC said such a foreclosure appears to be anti-competitive and infringes the Competition Act 2010.
The MyCC had since taken steps to engage the relevant parties involved, including the MOE and EMGS, in order to ensure that foreign students are given the choice to choose their preferred service provider when seeking to buy insurance coverage. This is in the spirit of promoting competition in the industry.
"The MyCC's engagement with the relevant stakeholders has shown that competition advocacy can be an effective tool to bring about a competitive environment and ensuring choice for consumers. Not all cases are dealt with through a full investigative process," said MyCC CEO, Shila Dorai Raj.