China looks for improvements in express industry in 2012
China’s State Post Bureau said today it would work to solve problems in the country’s courier and express delivery market and actively pursue reforms in the industry. Meeting with express delivery companies this afternoon in Beijing, the Bureau’s deputy director Wang Yu said that for the sector to continue its development, deeper reforms were needed quickly with a greater emphasis on technological improvements.
The Bureau wants to see problems in the “last mile” sorted out, companies to make more of an effort to improve service quality and for smaller, family-owned courier companies to operate under the kind of standards that larger express companies meet.
It also wants to be more supportive of express delivery companies investing in technology to improve their service efficiency.
Wang Yu said there were “unprecedented” opportunities in developing the Chinese courier and express market.
The meeting in Beijing followed a conference on the postal sector as a whole, in which China’s secretary state for postal affairs, Ma Junsheng, also stressed the need for speeding up transformation of the express industry.
He noted the need for improvements in service levels, capacity levels, management levels and skills levels within the industry, for stronger industry oversight, for standards within the market and further improvements in security.
Postal development
The minister also spoke on the importance of technological development within the postal sector, saying 2012 would prove an important part of the five-year development plan for the sector, which was launched last year.
While the first year had seen expanded access to basic postal services, the next 12 months would see rapid development of IT to help foster more sector growth, there would also be important growth in the express sector, and development of an integrated transportation system would help to create conditions for accelerated progress in the sector, suggested the minister.
The minister noted that development efforts in the sector have been made more difficult by adverse factors affecting the economy. But, he stated that there were also institutional barriers to technological development of the sector, and fundamental weakness in industry management.
Postal regulations are continuing to develop, but the minister suggested that safeguards and oversight for universal postal service needed improvement to promote equal access to basic public services, and improve delivery and freight services.
Universal service should be provided “covering urban and rural areas, to benefit all with an appropriate and sustainable level of development”, said the minister.
During the meeting, industry-wide targets were proposed for 2012, to see mail and express revenues not including banking growing at least 16% to 186bn yuan ($30bn USD), express revenues to grow 20% to 90bn yuan ($14.2bn USD).
