Information and communication technology in Bhutan Post

Kazeng Chodan, Manager ICT Unit, Bhutan Post. World Mail Review November 2008

A Tough Environment

Despite several barriers to rural access, Bhutan Post has been discharging its obligation to serve people living even in the remotest parts of the country through a widespread network of outlets. Against all the odds, Bhutan Post has been pursuing growth by adding to its core postal services. Postal outlets have been computerised and recent developments in information and technology have proved to be a good resource to foster exchange of information with the Post’s customers and partnering organisations, and between its own outlets.

Benefits and Challenges of ICT

The information and communication technology (ICT) revolution has proved to be beneficial as well as challenging for Bhutan Post.

The efficiency and results of the postal operation have been improved by the use of ICT. The wide infrastructure network spread throughout the country serves as a great opportunity to reach out to the people.  However, it is a challenge to maintain, supervise and monitor all these outlets. Some of them are up to three days’ walk from the nearest road access point. Although 99% of the postal outlets are computerised, the equipment is already becoming obsolete. Maintenance and replacement of equipment are very difficult, although in-house maintenance of hardware solves this problem to some extent.  However over time all the ICT equipment will have to be replaced which will be very expensive for Bhutan Post.

Despite these challenges, Bhutan Post has still found its own ways to tune the ICT revolution to its advantage.

As for information sharing, the headquarters central database, based in Thimphu, is connected via a leased line provided by a local service provider. Regional outlets use dial up services for connectivity. The systems have been developed in such a way that data to be transmitted to the central database is compressed to the minimum possible. Dial up connectivity poses a threat to the growth of ICT in the regional post offices as it is very slow and not very reliable. It is a daily effort to enhance the systems presently used in these outlets to overcome these problems.

Reaching the Furthest Communities

As for reaching the farthest flung communities, Bhutan Post, along with Bhutan Telecom (the telecom service provider in Bhutan), and under the leadership of the government, has joined hands  with the International Telecommunication Union and the Universal Postal Union in the ePost/ VSAT Project. Since 2003 this project has been focussed on six of the remotest places in Bhutan. The project aimed to solve the connectivity and information sharing issues of these geographically isolated communities. Indeed, of the six outlets the objectives for one could not be realised due to extreme climatic conditions.

The Royal Government of Bhutan has also initiated rural information sharing centres (Community Information Centres and Multipurpose Community Telecentres) through Bhutan Post outlets.  These centres make it possible for the local community to access basic amenities such as internet browsing, facsimile, photocopy, scanning and telephone etc on a subsidised basis.

Presently, many web based applications such as Counter Automated System, International Postal System (IPS) Light, International Financial Service (IFS) Light and Translink, and the Western Union module, can also be accessed and used on a daily basis.

Other Structural Challenges

Another major challenge faced at this stage in the field of ICT development in Bhutan Post is the level of literacy in the country and the inadequate technical knowledge of the postal employees.Training at  headquarters is conducted twice a year for postal employees from regional offices. As a result, when the ICT services offered by the postal outlets are expanded, there should be enough ICT savvy people to access and enjoy those services.

Business entrepreneurs pose stiff competition to Bhutan Post. One way adopted by Bhutan Post to counteract this competition is to extend the opening hours of its outlets beyond the opening hours of the business entrepreneurs. Expanding the services offered and specialising in all of it is also an option.

All in all the economy of the country itself will determine success in seizing the benefits of ICT for Bhutan Post. A simple instance would be “No matter how much the rates of the ICT services are subsidised, unless the people are comfortable enough to pay that amount, the services will still be underutilised”.