Koizumi accepts revision of postal public corp. bills
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi late Monday accepted a demand from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that two bills governing terms and conditions for establishing a public corporation handling postal services be revised, party sources said.
Koizumi agreed to accept the demand during talks with LDP policy chief Taro Aso and other LDP leaders, the sources said.
On the other two bills on deregulation of mail delivery service, the Koizumi administration and the LDP will aim to bring the matter to a final conclusion Tuesday, the sources said.
It is still uncertain, however, whether a compromise will be reached Tuesday because some members in a panel of the LDP’s decision-making General Council are still seeking a revision of the bills on deregulation of mail delivery service, they said.
An advocate of privatization of the state-run postal services, Koizumi wants to leave the two bills that include the definition of the type of mail or parcels that private firms can deliver unchanged so that as many private companies as possible can enter into the market.
But some LDP members including those with vested interests in posts-related services want to amend the bills on mail delivery service to place clearly stated limits on private-sector firms’ entry into the market to protect the public sector’s benefit in the service.
Koizumi has shown no signs of being open to possible revisions to the two bills on mail delivery service.
Koizumi and the LDP opponents to his policy over the mail delivery issue will therefore seek alternative methods to set terms and conditions of private firms’ entry into the market, such as drafting a special guideline apart from legislation, the sources said.
Koizumi and Aso basically reached the compromise in a meeting at the premier’s office Monday, the sources said. Posts minister Toranosuke Katayama was also present at the meeting.
I don’t mind about technical details as long as private-sector entry will not be barred, Koizumi told reporters after the meeting, expressing a flexible stance over the plan to amend some bills, but without specifying which bills he was talking about.
Aso also told reporters after the meeting, The gap is gradually being bridged. But we still have to talk about details.
The set of four postal services deregulation bills are now before the Diet.
The bills include ones that would allow private firms to begin offering mail services under certain conditions and ones to establish a new public corporation in 2003 to take over the three state-run postal services — mail, postal savings and kampo life insurance.
Koizumi has repeatedly said he is determined to seek Diet passage of the bills by the July 31 end of the current Diet session, as he brands the bills a milestone for privatization of the postal services.
Some LDP lawmakers say that the conditions for private firms to enter into the business should be stricter than those stipulated in the current bill, and that the definition of what type of mail private companies can handle should be clarified.
A clearer definition is likely being sought partly to bar private companies from handling direct mail, which currently accounts for roughly 25% of mail services.
AP-NY-07-01-02 1157EDT
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