Hungarian Post to cut number of offices

According to daily Nepszabadsag information, Hungarian Postal Service (MP) plans to get rid of more than 1000 of its 2841 post offices. The ones in small villages are planned to be integrated into a franchise network, while the superfluous offices in larger towns are to be closed down in 2007. The transformation has to be finished before 2009, the year of the liberalization of the postal services market. In the future, the postal business is likely to become a part-time job and done in e.g. a restaurant or a grocery. The company hopes the cuts will save billions of forints and will help MP to maintain competitiveness and profitability. The company is satisfied with the mobile postal service, which is operating in 950 villages and will go on expanding and developing it.