Egypt participates in meetings of international consumer protection organizations to discuss how to contain the impacts of world crisis on markets

 Mr. Saeed Al Alfi: "Benefiting from the experiences and best practices of the developed countries in market surveillance programs" 

 Egypt was recognized for the efforts realized in the schools awareness campaign which aims to educate teenagers and internet users on computer usage and internet safety.

 Egypt participated in two important meetings, one was held by consumer policy committee which follows the OECD and the other was for international network implementation of consumer protection. Both meetings ended in Paris with a number of results and recommendations of which most important was about how to contain the impacts of world crisis on consumer. Mr. Saeed el Alfi the chairman of the Egyptian consumer protection agency and head of Egyptian delegation declared that bilateral meetings with members of both organizations took place with an objective of benefiting from their best practices and experiences in the fields of consumer protection and market surveillance programs. Mr. Saeed affirmed that the Egyptian participation in these meetings is based on an invitation from OECD to discuss the ascending complications resulting from world financial crisis and their impacts on the consumer and to figure out the policies followed by the member countries to face this crisis on the short and long run since those members have participated in preparing a report that includes different policies followed to overcome the crisis in order to present a final report during the ministerial meeting of OECD that will take place next June.

 According to Mr.Al Alfi, the meetings discussed the progress of a project made by member countries in field of consumer protection by establishing guidelines for governmental entities on the preparation of awareness campaigns, taking into consideration that consumer behavior has been affected from the new economic conditions and patterns.

 The meetings discuss the results of research conducted by Michael Jenkin head of consumer policy committee noting that the member countries have participated in a survey to discuss product safety challenges and Mr. said invited the member countries to collaborate in the establishment of a market surveillance program and to spot the negative practices and exchange information and data in this regard. Egypt looks forward to join OECD which contains 28 countries in addition to four candidate countries along with India as an observer since the committee aims to foster consumer protection from deceptive advertisements, prepare researches and studies reports in field of consumer protection with a focus on consumer education and product safety.

 
The chairman of consumer protection agency pointed to the participation of Egypt in the semiannual conference of international network for implementation of consumer protection which started its tasks after the termination of the OECD consumer policy committee meetings. Noting that in 2007 Egypt joined this international network which constitutes of 40 country members where they all collaborate to foster the relation between governmental entities to fight the harmful and deceptive practices that affect the consumers negatively. Some mechanisms adopted by different countries such as Canada, USA, UK have been identified in order to evaluate to which extent these mechanisms and programs could be beneficial. Also, Norway, Canada and Australia   exchanged their policies in fighting the deceptive advertisements.

 
Al Alfi said that the Egyptian consumer protection agency conducted an awareness campaign which has been prepared in cooperation with 18 countries member in international network about internet fraud in a number of schools in addition to offering the needed support for seven NGOs to establish thirty workshops and awareness campaigns in youth centers, internet cafes along with distributing brochures to the participants

 
Also, launching an awareness portal on the Egyptian consumer protection agency website www.cpa.gov.eg in order to raise the awareness of teenagers and internet users about computer usage and internet safety; this portal will be localized to enlarge the scope of people who could benefit from it.

 It has been agreed to upgrade the database of consumer agencies of member countries. The database will include the laws, executive regulations and guidelines for consumers and companies in order to help them and to benefit from the mechanism that will be established to exchange the research methods followed when conducting comparative studies or surveys.

 Mr. Amr Fahim, the executive director of the Egyptian consumer protection agency pointed out that the US commissioner of federal trade commission has praised the diversified campaign launched by the Egyptian agency and how the agency is keen to foster the role of NGOs which emphasizes on importance of civil society in raising the awareness of consumers. He finally noted that Egypt participation have led to numerous positive results which improved the relationship between the Egyptian consumer agency and other consumer agencies and to benefit from their experiences.

For more information about the CPA Fraud Prevention Campaign, click here.