THE national development plan should include consumer protection in the form of good policies and laws that will not only protect consumers but help remove bad and unproductive businesses from the market, says Fiji Consumers Association secretary Paras Sukul.
Mr Sukul said this would lead to better productivity and consumer confidence, which in turn could stimulate economic growth.
“The association is urging consumers and the general public to take the opportunity to ask that consumer issues be included in the continuous consultations on Government’s five-year and 20-year development plans,” Mr Sukul said.
While the council applauds Government’s initiative to have broad and inclusive consultations on the national development plan, Mr Sukul said, consumer issues affected everyone and were bread-and-butter issues faced on a daily basis.
“Consumers want better products, standards, better services from transport providers, and value for money. Many of us work hard to earn our salaries and wages and use this money for essential products and services or things that we want to invest in,” Mr Sukul said.
“So when we face bad traders, the value of our sweat and money is lowered. As consumers, we need better production through appropriate laws and regulations.
“The national development plan needs to consider the fact that we now live in a very consumer-oriented society where we are buying and consuming products and services every minute of the day.
“If we are spending our hard-earned money on needs and wants but we receive bad goods, poor services or are unfairly treated by bad traders then something is wrong with the system.”
Minister for Finance and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said there was a good set of consultations on the national development plan in progress.
He said there were more than 600 different locations for the national development consultations to gauge the views of members of the public, adding most of them were nearly complete.
