Dhaka seeks membership at Consumers International

The government has taken a move to be member of the Consumers International (CI) aiming to enhance relations with the global consumer groups, officials have said.
"We have decided to become a member of the CI in a bid to enter into the international consumers' network," director general of Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) Md Abul Hossain Mian told the FE on Thursday.
"We will be able to gather knowledge on overall world consumers' rights and movement scenario which will help us to properly implement the country's Consumer Rights Protection Act," he said.
The ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA) and the National Consumer Right Protection Council (NCRPC) have approved, in principle, to be a 'government-backed' member of the CI recently, he added.
"It will be possible to know how the public and private initiatives across the world have been taken to protect their consumers' rights if our country becomes a member of the CI," a high official of the ministry of commerce (MoC) said.
"Besides, we will be able to present our different initiatives on consumers' rights issue to the world," he added.    
The authorities of the DNCRP have already collected necessary documents to become member of the CI from the regional office of the organisation in Malaysia. Member subscription fee of the international consumer association is U$ 500 annually.
The 20th CI World Congress will be held in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. Bangladesh wants to participate in the congress.
CI is the only independent global campaigning voice for consumers. With over 250 member organisations in 120 countries, it is building a powerful international consumer movement to help protect and empower consumers everywhere. CI is a United Kingdom (UK)-based not-for-profit private company limited. It is also registered with the UK government.
The country's Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009 was enacted by the government in April 2009 to ensure consumer protection by realising consumers' right to quality goods and services at fair prices.
It also highlights consumers' right to information relating to quality, quantity, standard and value of the goods and services.
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