Price check: Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Rita Lau visits the Consumer Council headquarters.

Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Rita Lau has praised the Consumer Council for enhancing commodity price transparency and educating tourists on safeguarding their consumer rights.

Mrs Lau visited the council's headquarters in North Point today and learned more about its recent initiatives, including the launch of a Weekly Price Survey last month covering more than 40 food products and daily necessities at different retail outlets.

The council will soon launch two other initiatives - the Internet Price Watch and the Daily Wet Market Report - as part of the measures to ease the impact of inflation on the public.

It has also set up a dedicated website to provide shopping tips to Mainland visitors to help them make informed choices and to advise tourists on the help channels available to them. More than 40 million hits were recorded by the end of last month.

Mrs Lau said the council has also provided valuable advice to Hong Kong people travelling abroad and has worked closely with the Tourism Commission in helping tourists in the city.

"Over the past 34 years, the council has strived unswervingly to work for the benefit of consumers. I hope the co-operative partnership which the council has established with the Government will continue to sustain and strengthen in the years ahead," Mrs Lau said.