Singapore to liberalize market for basic mail services
Singapore will fully liberalize the city-state’s postal sector by opening the market for basic mail services, the government said Monday.
Singapore Post Ltd. will no longer have exclusive access to the segment — which includes the collection and delivery of letters and postcards within, into, and out of the country — when its license expires in March, Minister of Communications, Information, and the Arts Lee Boon Yang told reporters.
“We have had expressions from various postal service providers that they are interested in entering this sector,” Lee said. “At what level they are keen on entering or interested in participating we cannot say for sure at this instance.”
The market for express mail, printed matter and parcels is already liberalized.
Basic mail services make up about a fifth of the annual revenue generated by Singapore’s postal services sector — which was about 1 billion Singapore dollars (USD650 million; euro 503 million) in 2004, Lee said.
Total mail volume has grown at about 2 percent a year since the 1990s, he said.
