JEDDAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal opened the First Arab Consumer and Brand Protection Forum at the Hilton Hotel in Jeddah yesterday.
The three-day event is organized by the Saudi Customs and Hemaya Universal with the cooperation of the Arab League and Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“The forum is part of the Saudi government’s combat of commercial fraud and counterfeiting,” Director General of Saudi Customs Saleh Al-Khilawi, said in a press meeting yesterday.
Al-Khilawi attributed the phenomena of the commercial fraud in the region to factors such as the absence of strong ethical values in manufacturers and importers of such goods and shortage of specialized agencies to discover counterfeit goods in the local markets besides lack of coordination between departments responsible to control the menace. The seven objectives of the ongoing forum include activating consumer protection groups, drawing up appropriate mechanisms to reduce the spread of counterfeiting and piracy and benefiting from the experience of developed countries in this regard.
More than 40 speakers and hundreds of experts from 15 countries are participating in the forum, said Ahmed Al-Hamdan, chairman of the Hemaya Universal, during the press conference.
“The economies of Arab nations are being threatened by counterfeiting and it is one of the major obstacles that hamper growth in the region. The forum aims to study the menace from different angles in a scientific manner and lay down strategies to curb it,” Al-Hamdan said in an earlier statement. The regional and international bodies participating in the forum include World Customs Organization, Intellectual Property Protection Unit at the European Union, the US Office for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights and Patent, Gulf Standardization Organization, Saudi Specifications and Standards Organization, Saudi Consumer Protection Society and Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Al-Hamdan said.
The participants in the forum include Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Zainal Alireza, Minister of Culture and Information Iyad Madani, Saleh Al-Khilawi and Ahmed Al-Hamdan.
