IPB Participated in Regional Conference on Consumer Protection (RCCP) in India
Regional Conference on Consumer Protection (RCCP) on 26-27 October 2017 was historically the first meeting related to the consumer protection held in South-Southeast-East Asia regions. The meeting opened by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was attended by more than 1,600 participants, consisting of the officials / representatives from 19 countries in the regions, the central and local governments officials in India, the private sectors, the associations, and the academia. The Conference was held in collaboration with UNCTAD. The Secretary General of UNCTAD, Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, had the opportunity to give a speech.
The Conference was led by Ram Vilas Paswan, the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution India, and accompanied by CR Chaudhary, the Minister of State for Consumer Affair, Food and Public Distribution and Commerce & Industry. The delegation of RI was led by the Expert Staff of International Relations, Ministry of Trade.
This conference discussed the policy about the consumer protection amid changes in the world market structure, increasing the global supply chain and the rapid development of e-commerce. The meeting was also motivated the passing on the revision of United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection (UNGCP) in 2016 as the government platform to formulate the consumer protection policy at the national level.
United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection and Implementation (UNGCP) was first agreed in the UN General Assembly on 16 April 1985. Then at the UN General Assembly Resolution (UNGA) No. 70/186 on the Consumer Protection dated 22 December 2015 revised UNGCP to add guidance on addressing the current consumer concerns such as the dispute resolution, the financial services, and the e-commerce. The resolution mandated UNCTAD to be responsible for discussing the consumer protection issues at the international level, so as to establish the intergovernmental of the Group of Experts on Consumer Protection Law and Policy in 2016. Pemri was expected to participate in the next meeting in 2018.
In his opening speech, PM Modi said that the Government of India had made the improvements in the consumer protection sector both in terms of the legal umbrella and the governmant programs. It was also pointed out that the increase in the consumer protection was directly proportional to the increase in the community’s purchasing power. For example, the enforcement of the consumer protection policy could reduce the prices of the household and medicine needs. This prompted the government to strive for the alignment with India’s 1.2 billion people who were basically the consumers as well. At the same time, the Government of India was pushing for the improved quality of the domestic product over the campaign of “Make in India”, so that the adoption of a good consumer protection policy would form a more competitive market. The conference was followed by the discussion in 6 (six) panel discussion sessions.
Dr. Megawati Simanjuntak, the teaching staff of the Department of Family and Consumer Science, Faculty of Human Ecology (Fema), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), had the opportunity to be a speaker in the session of the Consumer Education and Empowerment. She conveyed the success of Indonesia in developing the Consumer Empowerment Index (IKK) and as well as the cooperation experience of the consumer education program. This received a positive response from the conference participants as the input for the implementation of the consumer protection for other countries. Indonesia was one of the pioneers in developing the consumer empowerment measuring tool in Asia.
In general, the activities of RCCP were successful; and the enthusiasm of the participants, the business actors, and the academics were high enough in their respective capacities to provide the critical and constructive feedback and responses.
The developing countries including Indonesia were expected to participante in UNCTAD Intergovernmental Group of Experts (IGE) on Consumer Protection Law and Policy which was held annually in formulating the consumer protection policy.***
