FURTHER educating people about their consumer rights is key to ensuring their protection and addressing violations, it was stressed.
This was highlighted at the Consumer Protection Forum and Expo 2019 which was launched yesterday and featured expert discussions on the rules and regulations in place to protect consumers.
The forum, inaugurated by Industry, Commerce and Tourism Under-Secretary for Trade Affairs Nader Almoayyed, also included an exhibition of private firms showcasing their products and services while highlighting the importance of awareness.
“This forum highlights a pivotal and essential sector within any government system that works carefully to achieve a sustainable economic and trade environment and a transparent, fair and balanced relationship for all parties involved,” said Mr Almoayyed.
“Consumer protection is the responsibility of all government entities and not just one authority as they each have a vital role to play in achieving the ideal comprehensive protection of the consumer, each according to its role.”
Creating a balanced relationship between consumers and traders was deemed critical to maintain transparent and fair co-operation, he stressed
The ministry’s public relations and media director Sinan Aljabery said the awareness level among consumers has increased in the last eight years as the number of complaints received by the Consumer Protection Directorate increased from a few hundred to over 3,000 last year.
He added that this increase was seen as a positive trend – adding that more than 90 per cent of the disputes were solved without resorting to legal action.
“The economy will be strong as long as this relationship is strong, and this relationship is framed by the legal rules and regulations in place,” he said.
“We are highlighting the laws and regulations that is organising the relationship between those parties and how we can enhance it to a further stage in terms of co-operation and understanding and spreading awareness among consumers and traders.”
He added that plans were also in place to expand Bahrain’s on a wider Gulf level in order to have a unified set of rules to ensure protection of consumers travelling between all six countries.
“We have a strong base of legal frames and infrastructure in Bahrain in terms of channels of communication with the directorate and we want to enhance it more – the capacity of the infrastructure as well as the laws and regulations in place,” he said.
“Within the last five or six years we’ve had the Consumer Protection Law, Commercial Fraud Law, and Fair Competition Law and we are looking to further enhance this umbrella of laws to a GCC level and have a unified law which is in the pipeline and in the final stages.”
Also present at the forum was Saudi Arabia’s Commerce and Investment Ministry electronic stores censorship manager Khaled Al Shaia, who said consumer awareness was even more critical now than ever due to online commerce.
He said the number of complaints relating to e-commerce and electronic stores filed with his country’s Commerce and Investment Ministry in 2018 was around 15,000, which increased to 20,000 by the third quarter of this year.
“E-commerce is now at its prime and it’s widespread and has reached all segments of society – both young and old – so spreading awareness is critical to ensure their rights are protected as well as their personal information and banking details especially given that all transactions occur online,” he said.
The strength of e-commerce was further emphasised by Bahrain’s Customs risks director Major Mohammed Al Shaikh who highlighted that more trade online has led to the need for tighter monitoring and regulations at customs points.
“Commerce is now more electronic which has increased individual importing operations by people purchasing online which has led to tighter monitoring on our part of all products coming into Bahrain,” he told the GDN.
“It is our job to ensure that all these products adhere to the laws and regulations in place in Bahrain set to protect the consumers – we have two roles which are tighter monitoring and facilitating trade.”
The forum, which will continue today, was also attended by Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) chairman Sameer Nass along with senior government officials from Bahrain and the GCC.
reem@gdn.com.bh
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