Sponsored by National Beverage Company  and Candia,

The Events of Palestinian Consumer Day is organized in the Women’s Community College

Ramallah- Al Hayat Economic – The Palestinian Consumer Protection Society launched the events marking the Palestinian Consumer Day, usually organized on March 15 every year.  The events were launched under the sponsorship of the National Beverage Company Coca-Cola/Cappy (NBC) and Candia Company in the Women’s Community College, Ramallah, in presence of Tarek Sarhan, Dean of Al Tira College; Alaa Esawi Public Relation and Technical Department Coordinator of NBC and Candia; Salah Hanieh, Chairman of the Consumer Protection Society; and Anan Al Samery, Representative of the Monetary Authority. The event included speeches made by many figures who attended the event. Those speeches focused on the quality of local products and the rights of the Palestinian consumer.

The event also included a fair for the Palestinian products with participation by NBC, Candia and Ben Zhaiman, as well as Bin Al-Rasheed Mills Company and Al-Arz Company for Ice Cream.  

Mr. Esawi, Public Relation and Technical Department Coordinator of NBC Said: “In NBC, we were keen to sponsor such important event through which we managed to communicate with more than 320 male and female students of Al Tira College, to draw their attention and raise their awareness on such important day about their rights as consumers, and to inform them about the local products that have become at the present competitor to the international products in terms of quality.”

During his speech, Mr. Esawi stressed the important role of national companies to promote the Palestinian economic situation, and the necessity for those companies to be supported by local community. “Our national products managed to prove their ability to compete the imported products. Our local products undergo series of inspection and auditing in accredited labs to assure their compliance with the quality and public safety standards and specifications”, he said.

Mr. Esawi praised the continuous efforts made by Consumer Protection Society in its control work to ensure food safety in the markets and to follow up the Palestinian product process from the start of production up to delivery to consumers.

On his part, Mr. Hanieh said that the Consumer Day comes as an opportunity for the promotion of the role of citizens and for raising their awareness on their rights as consumers. “We, in the Palestinian Consumer Protection Society, care for the consumer interests. We endeavor to address the young generation because they bear the ideas and principles that Consumer Protection Society seeks to promote in the society”, he said.

He explained that “the Society has recently made active efforts to protect the Palestinian consumer rights and to fix the commodity price in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy”. The Society was part of the crisis cell whose recommendations were approved by the government, to remove the tax on flour and to fix the bread price. Those efforts were culminated by fixing the price of fuel and electricity.

Mr. Al Samery participated by a speech on the role of the Monetary Authority. During his speech, he indicated that Monetary Authority organizes market and control over it in the field of banking, to achieve increase of Palestinian economic gross by enhancing consumer confidence in banking corporations. He indicated that the Monetary Authority licensed in the past two years five companies that provide e-payment service to be in line with the monetary process like the other world countries. Al Samery declared that Monetary Authority opened two sites for service of the audience and receipt of their complaints in the Monetary Authority Headquarters in Ramallah and Gaza, to enhance the principle of transparency and to reserve the consumer rights.

Engineer Tarek Sarhan, Director of Women’s Community College, welcomed the companies and organizations that attended this event. He emphasized importance of the event in conceptualization of consumer protection rights. He announced that the college endeavors to create student group to be concerned with follow up in the field of consumer protection and to be complementary to the Consumer Protection Society.

In speech for the students majoring in food processing in the College, student Mena Hamdi said in her speech that they, as students, play their role in supporting the national products in their communities by highlighting the quality of the national product. She called for the involvement of the students in the events related to the national products and to embrace them by training and development to improve and enhance their experiences and skills.

The Palestinian Consumer Day is a ceremony approved by the Government of Palestine to be held on March 15 every year, in line with the United Nations Directives on Consumer Protection. The directives cater for the interests and needs of consumers and call for enabling consumers to optimize their benefit from the economic resources and combat the commercial practices that may harm consumers.