UPU urges Posts to “step out of comfort zone to build their future”
Bishar Hussein, director general of the Universal Postal Union, urges World Strategy Conference delegates to “test new ideas”. Bishar Hussein, director general of the Universal Postal Union, has urged the 750 delegates attending the organization’s 2015 World Strategy Conference in Geneva to “step out of our comfort zone and test new ideas upon which we can build the future of the Post”.
The conference is starting the process of drafting the next world postal strategy, set to be delivered at the Universal Postal Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2016.
According to the UPU, the “phenomena forcing public postal services to redefine themselves for the 21st century” include “’postal activities increasingly focused on logistics and financial services instead of traditional mail, the growth of e-commerce and the rise of parcel volumes, and changing consumer behaviours”.
Hussein identified changing consumer habits brought on by new technological applications as one of the key challenges facing the postal sector.
“The modern consumer is digital, concerned with sustainable development, and has a totally different gauge for the value of a product or service,” said Hussein. “Clients today want to access services anywhere, anytime. They want products tailored to their preferred method of consumption, and they want those products to be delivered at home or right next door.”
Posts must see this new reality as an exciting opportunity, not a constraint, added the director general.
About 135 UPU member countries are represented at the Strategy Conference, and around 40 speakers are taking part in a series of panel discussions covering themes such as the role of postal services in trade facilitation and social, financial and economic inclusion, the role of postal regulation in an ever-evolving communications market and the importance of innovation in ensuring that postal services and networks remain relevant in today’s society.
In a video message to the meeting, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that postal services have a significant role to play in the UN’s post-development agenda being finalised for adoption in September. He also stressed the importance of environmental responsibility: “As the world shapes a new sustainable development agenda and strives to address the threat posed by climate change, postal services can and must be part of the solution.”
