India Post is planning across-the-board hike in the rates of its mailing, courier and freight services. The rate hike, which comes after nine years, would be applicable to services like speed post, express parcel post and logistics post, and would be in the range of 15-20 pct.
Read MoreBrunei Postal Services and the Korea Post yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Ministry of Communications.
Signing on behalf of the Brunei government was Brunei Postal Services Postmaster General Haji Abd Kadir Tengah, while Korea Post President Kyung-Won Jung represented the Republic of Korea.
Present to witness the signing was Minister of Communication Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kema Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong.
Under the MOU, the Brunei Postal Services and Korea Post will have the opportunity to strengthen existing cooperation relations in various postal services related fields in order to develop and upgrade the quality of postal services.
Both sides agreed to develop cooperation in various fields which included providing expertise and exchanging information of their respective Mail Processing System, operating EMS cooperation (Expedite Mail Service), exchanging information and practices in the areas of Parcel Service and Cash on Delivery Services, operating International remittance service and promoting/encouraging the sale of each other’s philatelic products.
The Postal and Telecommunications General Directorate (PTT) has launched operations in the logistics business to establish a powerful rival against the industry’s burgeoning private companies.
Seeking a way to increase business as its main service field, mail delivery, which is rapidly becoming obsolete with the rising dominance of e-mail, PTT is shifting its attention to the logistics business. Its new service, PTT Kargo, was introduced at a press conference in Ýstanbul yesterday with the participation of Transportation Minister Binali Yýldýrým. The minister said PTT is continuously expanding its sphere of interest to cover more and more fields for the sake of better and faster service.
In 2004 the PTT initiated the PTT Bank project to provide its customers with inexpensive and reliable banking services. Money transfers via PTT’s network have proven attractive to the general public because sending money through PTT channels costs roughly one-tenth the charge to transfer funds by way of a bank. PTT’s extensive countrywide network includes 4,000 offices, 30,000 workers and 5,000 vehicles.
Minister Yýldýrým noted that he was confident PTT Kargo will very quickly achieve an important position in the cargo transport and logistics business, which handled 1.2 billion packages last year. PTT Kargo enters the competition with important advantages, one of the most striking of which is that it will charge a flat rate regardless of distance. For the minister, the creation of a state-run company in the logistics business should not be taken as a blow to the presence of private companies. Instead, this should be seen as an attempt to improve the quality of service in the sector and to empower it with more dynamism.
TNT announced the start of the only scheduled road services between China and five countries of Southeast Asia, using its Asia Road Network. From China, international road services to Southeast Asia will first be available from the South of the country. In a second step, TNT will link the Asia Road Network to its Chinese domestic network to offer customers seamless road connections from many parts of China to Southeast Asia.
The Asia Road Network connects to TNT’s international express network at Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province.
Introduced at the end of 2005, TNT’s Asia Road Network is a fast, reliable, and secure integrated road network linking China with over 125 cities across 5,000 km in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Laos. It features fully inclusive secure, door-to-door, day-definite distribution service with complete track and trace capabilities, supported by a 24/7 real-time GPS tracking system. The trucks depart on schedule like trains, leaving to arrive at one of TNT’s hubs and depots, in time for parcels to be unloaded, sorted, and shipped out again or delivered locally.
Due to China’s geographical proximity and close business links, Vietnam, in particular, will benefit from TNT’s completed Asia Road Network. As Vietnam’s economy continues to grow, bilateral trade volume between both countries is on the increase and offers strong business opportunities for TNT.
The company now plans to introduce intra-SAARC logistics products along with its domestic partner Blue Dart Express in a bid to tap the nearly Rs 190-crore (about euro 28 million) express logistics market in the SAARC countries.
DHL will offer services like worldwide document express, worldwide parcel express, import express, economy select and road express. The company is in the process of designing these multi-model products for use on both air and surface networks. Currently, DHL offers road express services between India and Bangladesh trade lanes.
It has also firmed up plans to introduce the above products in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. DHL also plans to capture a major share of the euro 5-billion unorganised trade market in the Saarc region by being the first organised player to tap this segment.
As a trade facilitator, DHL believes in developing the SAARC trade lane and has rolled out the SAARC products to help create a backbone for transportation and trade within SAARC countries, he said.
Industry studies also suggest that the intra-SAARC trade can increase by up to 11 times once trade barriers are lifted. Analysts suggest that the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), likely to be implemented by the middle of 2008, can lead to a manifold expansion of trade and investment in the region.
The experience of three major trade blocks (Nafta, ASEAN and EU) also bears out the fact that removal of barriers can significantly boost trade.
According to an industry analyst, India remains the hub of trade in the SAARC region with a share of over 90 pct. Growth in trade has driven by the India-Sri Lanka, India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh trade lanes.
1 INR = 0.0231269 USD
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