Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, headed the 4th meeting of the Higher Committee for Consumer Protection (HCCP) for 2016, which was recently held at the Meydan Hotel in Dubai.

The session was attended by Engineer Mohammed Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al-Shehhi, Under-Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Economy; Humaid bin Butti Al Muhairi, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Corporate Sector and Consumer Protection and Dr. Hashim Al Nuaimi, Director of the Consumer Protection Department, Ministry of Economy.

Also present were members of the committee that were comprised of officials from the federal government and local governments of the emirates.

Minutes of the 4th meeting showed the latest developments covering the implementation of recommendations made during previous meetings, including recommendations on research and discussion by the HCCP and communication with the Ministry of Finance to coordinate the discussion of the impact of the implementation of value-added tax (VAT) on businesses.

The minutes also featured developments related to the issuance of electronic and manual contracts, and its follow-up procedures. This also includes the role of concerned authorities and their commitment to the decision of the HCCP on the prevention of additional charges when using credit cards on all services and transactions and the review of guidelines covering dispute settlement panels.

The meeting also featured a presentation on the self-inspector project of the Department of Economic Development, Dubai.

Al Mansouri stressed the importance of continuing to work continuously and in constant coordination with all concerned authorities to develop tools and mechanisms to achieve more market discipline and strengthen the ways to protect consumers' rights in accordance with the best international practices.

He added that the HCCP has made many concrete steps in its move to adjust the practices of various vital business activities in the UAE further noting that the HCCP is set to launch newer initiatives in the coming year. One initiative is the renaming of the Customer Service Centres to Customer Happiness Centres, which follows the directive of the country’s wise leadership towards making customers happy. The move is expected to play a key role in the private sectors role in achieving the government's objectives of promoting an environment of happiness and positivity.

He stressed on the need to work on an extensive study covering the impact of applying the tax on the trade sector.

They also discussed a number of issues on the agenda of the meeting.