Reform on China postal system to start in H2 2005
A reform on the Chinese postal system, worked out by the State Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Information Industry, and the State Postal Bureau, is set to start in the second half of 2005 after being prepared for seven years. The reform will focus on separating the administrative functions from enterprise, strengthening governmental supervision, guaranteeing general services and special services and ensuring postal security. To the end China will establish the State Post Administration as the supervision organ and the China Postal Group Corp. to run all kinds of postal services including some core businesses such as mails, EMS, and logistics. A postal depository bank will be set up to regulate financial services in the postal area. China Postal Group Corp. will set up a series of subsidiaries in logistics, saving deposit, EMS, stamps collection, aviation and other industries. The reform plan has been filed to the State Council, the country’s cabinet for an approval. Most government employees in national and local post offices will become corporate employees. The State Postal Bureau will be replaced by the State Post Administration with a staff of only 1,000 people. Industry analysts believed that China would complete establishment of the State Post Administration and China Postal Group Corp. by the end of 2005 once the State Council approved the reform. Beijing Postal System and Guangdong Postal System will be the first two pilots. For the moment, there are more than 40,000 employees in Guangdong Postal System. Most of them will become the staff of China Postal Group Corp. to be newly built and the will participate in supervision of the Guangdong postal market. Guangdong Postal System held a conference in mid May 2005 to separate the main business and other small businesses. It has established an office to help with the separation but has not made a detailed reform scheme. In addition, the reform on the Chinese postal system has attracted oversea investors’ attention. In recent years, oversea express giants have made a long stride in the Chinese international express market. DHL, TNT, FedEx, and UPS now have taken an 80% share in this market. According to its WTO commitments, the Chinese government will allow overseas investors to start wholly-owned express and logistics subsidiaries in China from December 11, 2005. For the moment, China has opened express business and starts opening newspaper publishing business and is set to open parcel business next. Multi-national express operators are ambitious to have great expectations to intervene in the postal operation in Mainland China. On March 30, 2005, TNT announced in shanghai that it would team up with the State Postal Bureau to form a joint venture. Ken McCall, TNT China CEO, said in public that TNT would take any measure to join hands with the State Postal Bureau including buying a stake in it. FedEx signed an agreement with Guangdong Provincial Airport Administration Group on July 13, 2005 to start operation of its all-new Asian Pacific transfer hub in Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangdong, Southern China, in October 2008. UPS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Shanghai Airport (Group) Co., Ltd. on July 7, 2005 to build its international air transfer hub at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in 2007. (USD 1 = CNY 8.28)
From www.hexun.com, Page 1, Thursday, July 21, 2005 [email protected]
