News

×

06-05-2015


Palestine Technology College and Consumer Protection Society organize an Awareness Day on Consumer Rights and in Support of National Products




 

Ramallah – Alayyam - Palestine Technology College (Ramallah College of Female Teachers) recently organized an open day to raise awareness of consumer rights and to encourage Palestinian products.  The event was organized in cooperation with the Consumer Protection Society in Ramallah and Al Bireh Governorate. Participants in the Open Day included Sahab Zalmut, Director of Student Affairs at the College, Naheel Saeed and Abeer Ataya from the Student Affairs Department.
 
The Palestinian companies organized a tasting campaign for their products by the students.  The participating companies included Al-Arz Ice cream Factory Co., the National Beverage Company, Al-Jibrini Dairy and Food Products Co., and Reema Hygienic Paper Towels Company.
 
Zalmut confirmed that the College only deals with Palestinian products and pays attention to educating the students on their rights as consumers.  She thanked the companies for the Taste Campaign and thanked the Consumer Protection Society in the Governorate for its initiative and communication.
 
Salah Haniyeh representative of the Consumer Protection Society in Ramallah and Al-Bireh confirmed that the Society seeks to raise the awareness of consumers of their rights to act as a safety valve for such rights on the one hand, and to constitute a means of pressure and influence on all regulatory authorities and the private sector, on the other hand,  in order to provide a protecting environment for the consumer rights, particularly their safety and health and ensure that they receive safe goods and high quality services.
 
Haniyeh added: “In parallel, we have a role to play in the promotion of high-quality Palestinian products and competitive price in order to preserve consumer rights and provide safe and healthy Palestinian industrial products. Therefore, we launched an initiative to encourage Palestinian products under the slogan: (I have chosen you, My Homeland).  In each summer, we launch a campaign to encourage Palestinian products under the title (Summer of Palestine from the Bounties of my country) in partnership with the National Beverage Company and Al-Arz Ice cream Factory Company.
 
Haniyeh pointed out that the presence of the companies in Palestine Technology College for the tasting campaign was a clear proof that the industrial sector cares for the consumer and was a step towards voicing the consumer’s point of view to the companies themselves in order to receive high-quality goods.
 
Zahi Anabtawi chairman ice cream rice company and noted that "we are talking about a beginning in the fifties as an ice factory to preserve foodstuff due to the lack of electricity supply as available today, and then the plant developed to produce Eskimos, and in the eighties developed to ice cream industry, until we reached our status of today as a factory capable of competing in the domestic market and to export to Jordan and Kuwait, as we produce 2 million liters of ice cream, and we have 200 workers and employees.  We work around the clock and do not stop except for Friday prayers. We have highly competent Palestinian engineers and technicians.
 
Anabtawi announced that preparations were underway in full swing for the commissioning of the new plant in the city of Nablus.
Alaa Esawi, Manager of Public Relations at the National Beverage Company (NBC) said, "We started operation in 1998, when the Company was founded by a group of Palestinian businessmen.   Our Company produces global products using Palestinian manpower and we are the only company in the world that produces Coca-Cola products at the hands of Palestinians only.  We received an award from the National Centre for Occupational Safety."
 
Al-Esawi added: “We were and still are monitoring the needs and desires of the consumers, as we have worked on the development of new flavors of Cappy juices that meet consumer tastes and desires.”
Al-Esawi announced that by the end of 2015, NBC will have a soft drinks factory in the Gaza Strip.
 
A debate session was opened for the students who asserted that they encourage Palestinian products, and they seek to communicate with the Consumer Protection Society as their representative in order to cooperate and volunteer.  The students focused on the need to prosecute those who sell corrupt or expired goods.  They should be alerted about the conditions of proper storage, especially they sell valid products but corrupt which indicates poor storage and because they display some products under the sunlight which affects the quality.