JEDDAH: In an effort to stop piracy, the Kingdom’s Consumer Protection Association (CPA) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hemaya Universal Company, a company that specializes in combating fraud and piracy.
As a result the CPA has now become a strategic partner of the First Arab Consumer and Brand Protection Forum, which is to be held at the Jeddah Hilton Hotel on Oct. 12, 2008.
Mohammed Al-Hamad, president of CPA and Ahmad Al-Zubaidi, CEO of Hemaya Universal Company, attended the signing ceremony, which was held in Riyadh.
The forum, which is supported by Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, governor of Makkah Province, is being organized by the Arab League and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) in association with Hemaya Universal.
Al-Hamad said that CPA and Hemaya Universal aim to form a partnership that would work toward protecting consumers and Saudi society through awareness programs and periodical publications. The CPA would also support the forum with programs and lectures, and evaluate the event’s suggested keynotes.
Al-Hamad added that the Arab World has been observed, for the most part, as a region where little is known and understood about the full extent of the problem of piracy or how best to respond to it with effective strategies, actions and solutions.
Al-Zubaidi said all kinds of commercial fraud have become a global phenomenon, so widely spread that it deserves concerted attention and action.
He added that in 2001, the volume of commercial fraud and piracy worldwide was estimated to be around $360 billion annually; the growth of this phenomenon has accelerated where studies have shown that the volume of commercial fraud increased in the last 4 years to reach $780 billion by the end of 2005.