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EMPOWERING CONSUMERS
Egypt has plenty of experience administering a command economy, but managing an open market is another ball game, with different rules and a lot more players. It’s not just a matter of changing policies and streamlining or eliminating old institutions, but of developing a new approach, new laws and new kinds of regulatory bodies to enforce them. In an open market the private sector is empowered, but as reform proceeds and the economy grows, Egypt’s most powerful entity will also be its greatest, and formerly silent, majority – the consumer.
Recently, AmCham Egypt, in cooperation with the Egyptian Organization for Standardization & Quality (EOSQ) and the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA), co-hosted conferences examining two related issues: international quality standards and consumer protection from deceptive advertising. Both place the consumer at the center of reforms designed to upgrade national productivity. In an open market the consumer’s voice counts, and protecting consumer rights is not just a matter of fair play, but an index of the economy’s success.
Egypt’s private sector is still young, and in a rapidly evolving global business environment, our ability to produce goods and provide services that meet international standards and ensure customer satisfaction will determine our future. Keeping the business community informed of its opportunities and responsibilities is part of AmCham’s mandate, but it is up to decision-makers in every enterprise to recognize that the bar has been raised. With Egypt constituting the largest local market in the region, competition is on the rise and the stakes are high.
When the Consumer Protection Law was enacted in 2006, the CPA was founded to enforce the new code of best practice and fair play – not to control the market, but rather to monitor its performance with consumers providing vital feedback. The first step was raising awareness of consumer rights under the new law, including the right to file class action suits and to demand reimbursement for faulty goods or damages incurred by them.
Manufacturers and service providers who can’t meet the right standards will not, and should not, survive. At the end of the day, it is the consumer who will make the call.
Egyptians know quality goods when they see them and can appreciate quality services. They also know when they’re being cheated, and now they can do something about it. To inform the public about the extent of its new rights, the CPA developed an innovative and comprehensive awareness campaign, using every media outlet available, including TV dramatizations of customer/retailer interactions, and information diffusion by SMS. The CPA Call Center is handling thousands of queries and complaints, and the numbers are growing. People are learning that dialing 19588 is not just a chance to report an infraction or vent their anger, but to obtain justice.
Global price rises have reduced disposable incomes, and with every expenditure representing a significant investment of limited funds, consumer sensitivity is high. Yet some businesses are using the media to diffuse misleading and in some cases fraudulent advertising in order to gain a competitive edge. Far from promoting businesses, these tactics endanger them. Only ethical standards can guarantee profit margins and build customer bases, whereas false advertising achieves precisely the opposite.
These new consumer and quality standard issues affect us all, while demonstrating how an open market economy changes the rapport between the public, the state and the business community for the better. The CPA is the first Egyptian regulatory body to include members of consumer-related NGOs as well as government representatives, democratizing the agency’s management and ensuring equitable enforcement of the laws. Likewise, business and industry are not only subject to state regulatory bodies, but to the demands of average citizens and consumers nationwide. Moreover, when citizens are awarded their rights as consumers, they become active participants in reform, and will find it in their interest to support the process.
Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid has lent outstanding support to organizations promoting consumer awareness and quality standards because they affect not only individuals, enterprises and market segments, but national productivity as a whole. I urge all our readers to take advantage of AmCham Egypt’s information resources to learn more about these issues and to recognize their importance to the success of our reform endeavors.
OMAR A. MOHANNA
President, AmCham Egypt
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