Russia’s postal services market up 35percent in 2003

Russia’s postal services market soared 34.85% on the year in monetary terms in 2003 to 28.2 billion rubles, Leonid Reiman, acting Communications and IT Minister told a ministry board meeting Tuesday. Turnover of traditional Russian postal services operators jumped 35.5% on the year to 26.3 billion rubles, Reiman said without elaborating. Russian Post, a state company set up in 2003, controls over 40,000 main local post offices, Reiman said. Reiman also said that in 2003 only 80% of mail was delivered within the required time frames. Mail has to be delivered within 20 days. The Kiberpocht@ project, launched in 2002, provided for the installation of Internet outlets in 2,600 post offices as of January 1, 2003. Internet outlets served roughly 250,000 customers per month and over 4 million people in 2003. This year the number of Internet outlets is expected to rise to 10,000.