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Plans to deregulate airline ticket sales in Europe risk turning into a controversial cacophony as long as Air France, Lufthansa and Iberia keep their stakes in Amadeus, the dominant European [...]

TAIPEI -- Taiwan's government is set to delay deregulation of the island's telecoms industry for at least a year rather than risk undermining the planned sale of a further stake [...]

Taiwan's government may finally be showing its determination to further privatise Chunghwa Telecom, the island's former telecommunications monopoly. But what is expected to become the island's largest secondary share sale [...]

MOSCOW -- Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas monopoly, called on the Russian government yesterday to deregulate domestic gas prices for industrial users without breaking up its monopoly. The proposal is [...]

Gas and power deregulation in Asia-Pacific faces a crucial time, as the liberalization of Australia's industry creeps ahead, and some developing countries start to have second thoughts about their programs. [...]

The UK government needs to introduce competition into the water industry and so give water utilities an incentive to improve their service to customers. Competition has already been introduced in the electric, gas and telecoms sectors, and the water sector is now the large large UK-wide commercial monopoly. The water industry still needs to improve its service levels, while its prices remain too high. The government must demonstrate its commitment to competition by allowing any licensed firm to use the monopolist's pipes for an appropriate fee, backed by effective regulation.

French prime minister Alain Juppe is having very mixed results in his efforts to deregulate the country's public utilities and make them more competitive. The autumn 1995 attempt to streamline rail firm SNCF was not too successful, leading to a 24-day national strike. Industrial relations with Electricite de France (EdF) are also fragile, as the government negotiates with the European Union over the liberalisation of the EU energy market. However, the deregulation of the telecoms sector and partial privatisation of France Telecom seem to be going on relatively unchallenged.

Italian utilities are coming under growing pressure to change due to technological advances, growing competition and clarification of the regulatory system. Privatisation of Italian utilities is proving a slow process, with state holding companies retaining control. However, analysts believe that privatisation is less important for the utilities than the growing trend towards liberalisation. The most liberalised sector is the telecoms sector, where the pace of change is being driven by rapid technological progress and by EU directives.