Consumers blind to rights

Consumer rights, food hygiene and fake goods dominated a seminar held in Hanoi on March 16 by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to mark the World Consumer Rights Day.

The Vice Chairman of Hanoi’s Department of Market Management, Vuong Chi Dung, said that a lot of consumers are not fully awareness of their rights.

There are eight basic rights as stated by Consumers International and the World Consumers Rights Day, including the right to satisfaction of basic needs, safety, information, choice, a voice, compensation, education and a healthy environment.

According to a report by the Vietnam Standard and Consumers Association (VINASTAS), only 41 percent of people interviewed knew their rights as consumers.

Only a few members of the public are aware that they are protected by the Consumers Protection Agency under the Competition Management Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the representative agency for consumers, VINASTAS.

Complicated formalities also put consumers off applying their rights as consumers, participants said.

Dung added that there are only around 200 customer complaints filed every year. Strict penalty sanctions for enterprises and producers that break the law are important, he said.

Vice chairman of the VINASTAS Ho Tat Thang said protecting consumers is a social responsibility documented in Vietnam’s Ordinance on Consumer Rights.

There are 30 local branches under VINASTAS in other cities and provinces and a number of offices nationwide to deal with consumer complaints and appeals. However, food poisoning has remained a pressing issue, said the Vietnam Food Administrator under the Ministry of Health. The country saw 39,903 cases of food poisoning from 1997 to 2003, of which 383 were fatal.

The World Health Organisation reported that food poisoning causes losses worth VND3.4 trillion to Vietnam every year.

This issue needs coverage from media and communications agencies as consumers’ health is put at risk every day due to unhealthy and unsafe food.

Viet Nam newS, VOV

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