Lebanese Republic 
Launching of the Consumer Protection Strategy 2018 – 2020 in the occasion of the World Consumer Rights Day
A ceremony was held today at the Grand Serail in Beirut to launch the “Strategy of the Consumer Protection Directorate for 2018-2020”. The ceremony also included the launching of an awareness campaign for youth consumers regarding the “food safety” and the announcement of the universities’ competition results about the best awareness advertisement by the Ministry of Economy and Trade and under the auspices of the Prime Minister Saad Hariri represented by Information Minister Melhem Riachi.
The event was attended by the Minister of State for Combatting Corruption Nicolas Tueni, Minister of Economy and Trade represented by Director General of the Ministry Alia Abbas, Brigadier General Marcel Baloukji representing the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces Joseph Aoun, Colonel Joseph Mousallem representing the General Director for the Internal Security Forces, Major General Imad Osman, Colonel Ayman Sinno representing the General Director of State Security representing Major General Toni Saliba in addition to General Directors and representatives of Control and Judicial Authorities and numbers of universities, Union presidents and representatives of Presidents of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture Chambers.
After singing the National Anthem and broadcasting a video revealing the latest achievements regarding the Consumer Protection Strategy for 2017 – 2018, the Director of the Consumer Protection Tarek Younes made a detailed explanation for what the Ministry of Economy and Trade intends to present for the coming years in the field of consumer protection and inspection on food and consumable goods.
Abbas
Later on, the Director General of Ministry of Economy Alia Abbas took the floor and announced the launching of the 2018-2020 Strategy of the Consumer Protection Directorate and stressed the responsibility of the Ministry to protect the consumer in Lebanon. She also outlined the achievements of the strategy that was launched three years ago.
Moreover, Mrs. Abbas stated the activities made by the Ministry to increase the consumers awareness and control such as organizing workshops, conferences and competitions in addition to short text messages and advertisements.
In this regard, Mrs. Abbas declared that the Ministry is currently discussing a draft law to amend the Consumer Protection Law hoping to approve it as soon as possible in order to deter violators. In addition, she stated that UNCTAD chose the Ministry of Economy and Trade as a center of regional training for consumer protection which is a sign of trust in the Ministry’ performance as a tribute for the efforts exerted in this field during past years.
Furthermore, Director General also tackled the initiatives of the Ministry to enhance the role of the Consumer Protection Directorate such as (1) launching of youth consumers rights awareness campaign on the food safety and consumer rights; (2) announcing the universities competition results regarding the best advertisements on the consumer protection in E-commerce whereof the winner advertisement will be broadcasted on all television and radio channels and (3) delivering certificates of participation for the dispute resolution mediators trained by Lebanese Association for Mediation and Conciliation (LAMAC) with the cooperation of Islamic University.
Riachi
In his turn, Riachi thanked the Director General of Ministry of Economy and Trade for the Ministry’s effort to work on a law that combines between control and penalty. He also stressed the importance of the consumer protection and hoped that one day we will have a Ministry for Consumer Protection.
At the end, trophies and certificates were awarded to number of participants, dignitaries and inspectors.
