World's postal sector players meet for the 24th Universal Postal Congress

The development gaps that separate the postal services of industrialized and developing countries at a worldwide level must be reduced for citizens and businesses to better participate in international trade, said UPU Director General Edouard Dayan.

More than 2,200 postal sector stakeholders will participate in the 24th Universal Postal Congress, taking place in Geneva from 12 August. The majority of its 191 member countries will be represented.

According to Dayan, member countries must firmly commit to modernizing their postal networks so that, globally, they can fully contribute to their social and economic development objectives. Postal services are still alive and well, he said, adding that e-mail and the Internet had not rung the death knell for them. On the contrary, he added, all means of communication complement each other, and the postal sector in this era of the Internet and online commerce has never played a more key role in today’s commercial trade.

These challenges and others will be at the heart of Congress discussions and the World Postal Strategy UPU member countries will be asked to adopt. This strategy is designed around the interoperability of postal networks, using new technologies and harmonized international standards, the development of markets and more well-defined governance rules for the postal sector. Four objectives aim to better position worldwide postal services in the light of tougher competition, the opening up of markets, the advances made by new technologies, which offer new opportunities, and the need to improve their reliability and speed to respond adequately to individual and business needs.

Congress delegates will study 560 proposals. Some 330 are of a general nature or aim to modify the UPU Acts, an international treaty signed by all member countries at the end of Congress. The other proposals, more technical, will be examined by the next UPU Postal Operations Council. It will hold its first session after Congress in October at UPU headquarters in Berne.

The development gaps that separate the postal services of industrialized and developing countries at a worldwide level must be reduced for citizens and businesses to better participate in international trade, said UPU Director General Edouard Dayan.

More than 2,200 postal sector stakeholders will participate in the 24th Universal Postal Congress, taking place in Geneva from 12 August. The majority of its 191 member countries will be represented.

According to Dayan, member countries must firmly commit to modernizing their postal networks so that, globally, they can fully contribute to their social and economic development objectives. Postal services are still alive and well, he said, adding that e-mail and the Internet had not rung the death knell for them. On the contrary, he added, all means of communication complement each other, and the postal sector in this era of the Internet and online commerce has never played a more key role in today’s commercial trade.

The postal sector’s challenges are still many. Despite the governmental obligation of UPU member countries to ensure universal postal service, some 3 pct of the worldwide population still does not have access to basic postal services; that number is as high as 12 pct in Africa. Furthermore, national postal operators are currently delivering 57 pct of international letters in less than five business days, below the 68 pct objective set for 2008 at the 2004 Bucharest Congress. Many countries must also undertake the necessary postal reform to ensure a level-playing field among all postal sector players or make the transition towards offering more secure and faster electronic money transfers, to replace the more than century-old paper money order and fill an urgent market need, especially for migrant workers.

These challenges and others will be at the heart of Congress discussions and the World Postal Strategy UPU member countries will be asked to adopt. This strategy is designed around the interoperability of postal networks, using new technologies and harmonized international standards, the development of markets and more well-defined governance rules for the postal sector. Four objectives aim to better position worldwide postal services in the light of tougher competition, the opening up of markets, the advances made by new technologies, which offer new opportunities, and the need to improve their reliability and speed to respond adequately to individual and business needs.

Congress delegates will study 560 proposals. Some 330 are of a general nature or aim to modify the UPU Acts, an international treaty signed by all member countries at the end of Congress. The other proposals, more technical, will be examined by the next UPU Postal Operations Council. It will hold its first session after Congress in October at UPU headquarters in Berne.