Correo Uruguay seeks alternative sources of income

The Uruguayan government is concerned with the crisis hindering the mail service Correo (Administracion Nacional de Correos) which has piled up liabilities of USD20mil, most of it with the Banco de Prevision Social, with the workers cooperative, and with the BROU. Correo annual imbalance is estimated at USD3mil and the company is pursuing a strategy to diversify its services to the distribution of tariffs for public services rendered by government owned UTE (light), OSE (water & sewage), and Anel (telephone). On the other hand it is gradually reducing the labor force to 1,400 employees through a voluntary retirement program. Over the last years the Ministry of Economy has been grating a USD6mil – USD7mil subsidy to Correo, that could be written off, if the state owned corporations agree to pass on mail distribution to it instead to tackle distribution in house.