Participants at the fifth Jeddah Commercial Forum at Jeddah's Chamber of Commerce and Industry have underlined the importance of joint public and private sector work in the fight to protect consumers from commercial fraud. The chamber's Undersecretary for Consumers Affairs, Abdul Rahman Bin Abdul Razak, described consumer protection as “a common task shared by several bodies”. Razak said the ministry had put in place several measures such as the creation of the Anti-Fraud and Market Control Agency operating across the Kingdom, as well as making available to consumers an average product price index to enable them to observe price tampering or fixing. Nabeel Al-Mulla, Governor of the Saudi Commission for Specifications and Standards, told the chamber that standard specifications were instrumental in assessing the quality of any product and its fitness for human consumption. The standards commission, Al-Mulla, noted, had to date set 14,820 specifications indicating product name and class category. Khadeja Rouzi, a professor at Jeddah's College of Home Economics and Education, said she wished to see awareness programs to inform the public of the wide nature of commercial fraud. “Such awareness campaigns on the methods of salesmen would prove to be something of an eye-opener for many people,” Rouzi said.
