Korea Post makes its present felt across world
In general, it is safe to say that any country's postal agency pays little attention to things outside its national boundary because postal services are basically about domestic business.
Of course, there are global businesses such as international mailing or parcel services but they typically don't account for a significant chunk of revenues or profits.
However, Korea Post seems to be different _ the country's postal service has constantly pinned its eyes on overseas businesses and events in a variety of segments.
Jung Kyung-won, who took charge of Korea Post in April, amply demonstrates the agency's efforts to take an opportunity not only in Korea but also across the globe through his schedule this week.
On Tuesday, Chung met with his Vietnamese counterpart Do Ngoc Binh in Hanoi to exchange a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
Under the MOU, the two countries agreed to cooperate in sharing expertise in postal services, exchanging experts and developing new businesses.
On Friday, he plans to deliver a keynote speech at the Universal Postal Union (UPU) High-Level Conference, which will take place in Bern, Switzerland.
Through the speech at the annual event, Jung is supposed to talk about the country's e-commerce landscape and activities of Korea Post in the competitive business.
“I think everything goes global today and even the postal service should take on international mantra and approach to remain ahead of the curve down the road,'' Jung said.
MOU With Vietnam
Jung predicts the MOU with Vietnam will play a pivotal role in beefing up the bilateral postal relationship of the two countries.
“We will be able to strengthen cooperation with Vietnam through the MOU, thus helping our companies enter the country,'' Jung said.
“For Vietnam, the nation will learn advanced skills and know-how in postal services. In other words, the MOU is a win-win partnership,'' he said.
It is one of Korea Post's major goals to spearhead the country's postal service-related companies to wade into foreign markets.
Last year alone, the agency introduced its advanced postal services to a total of 14 countries including Vietnam, Mongolia and Indonesia.
On the back of this, Korean companies could ink export contracts worth $246 million associated with postal services in 2006.
This year, the postal delivery system is likely to be exported to such countries as Malaysia and Kazakhstan.
The global activities of Korea Post have gained recognition of the UPU, which asked Jung to deliver the keynote speech at the high-level conference on Friday.
Jung plans to share the skills and know-how how Korea Post could reap success in the hyper-competitive e-commerce area, which is sought by many private companies.
Korea Post is deemed as one of the country's leaders in the e-commerce business thanks to its two flagship services, called PostNet and ePost.
Both PostNet and ePOST received prizes for technology and e-commerce respectively at the 2006 World Mail Awards.
Notable Achievements
Korea Post is already an outstanding player here in all of its three business areas _ mail, banking and life insurance.
Korea Post, which operates 3,538 post offices and postal outlets nationwide, generated revenue of $2.1 billion with a total of 4.8 billion mails last year.
In the postal financial sector, it had financial assets worth $59 billion including savings and life insurance funds, which amount to $38 billion and $21 billion, respectively.
While the entire sector made profit of $195.2 million, the postal sector recorded $90.6 million surplus.
The achievements of Korea Post are not just about good bottom line but also about high satisfaction of its numerous customers both at home and abroad.
It has been ranked first place for eight years in a row in the public service sector, the exploits which were recognized by the Korea Customer Satisfaction Index (KCSI).
It also has maintained the highest spot for four consecutive years in the field of door-to-door parcel service in a survey covered by the KCSI.
Plus, the agency has just won the first prize for the Six Sigma Management Award.
Impressed by the continuous achievements, Korea Post gains lots of attention these days.
In particular, an increasing number of postal operators have visited Korea Post in order to benchmark successful automation and informatization of postal process and services.
However, Korea Post and its leader Jung seemingly by no means want to live on their past laurels.
“To be reborn as one of the world's most advanced postal service providers, all employees of Korea Post including myself are doing best to respond to the ever-changing business environment,'' Jung said.
“In addition, we will continue to pull out all the stops to share our experiences with foreign players as well as learning advanced skills from our overseas counterparts,'' he said.
