Tag: Asia

China Post to auction hotels to shed non-core assets

Posted by | Nov 28, 2007 | |

China Post Group, operator of the country’s postal system, will auction off 60 hotels, an asset exchange said, as the government urges state companies to shed non-core businesses.

The China Beijing Equity Exchange, a site for trade in unlisted assets, said on its Web site that China Post would sell the hotels through an auction at the exchange.

An exchange official said the hotels, located in 24 provinces across China, would be subject to further valuation but would be worth a total of at least four billion yuan (USD 541 million).

China Post put 30 hotels up for sale in June in an auction in Shanghai and aims to sell all 400 of its hotels by the end of 2008.

China’s state asset watchdog, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, has urged major state-run companies to focus on their main businesses and sell unrelated operations to improve efficiency and competitiveness.

Sinopec Corp, Asia’s top refiner, plans to sell its hotel businesses to China Travel Service Ltd.

China Post Group was created in January in a restructuring aimed at improving efficiency in the country’s postal system, which was previously operated by the government itself.

Home Inns & Hotel Management Inc, China’s biggest budget hotel chain, said in July it was in talks with China Post on the purchase of some properties as it aims to quadruple the number of its hotels to 1,000 in the next few years.

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Postal network can be used for other services

Posted by | Nov 28, 2007 | |

India’s vast postal network can be utilised for providing various facilities including microfinance, banking and information-based services to the masses. The Department of Posts also needs to gear itself to strengthen its global network to meet challenges posed by its competitors, said Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja.

Delivering his inaugural speech at the five-day executive council meeting of the Asian Pacific Postal Union (APPU), Mr. Raja said over 150,000 post offices spread across India can use newer technologies for providing microfinance services, set up e-knowledge centres and extend banking facilities, specially in rural areas.

Stressing the need for transforming the postal services to meet future challenges and prepare them to compete in the new environment of globalisation, Mr. Raja said the need of the hour was that the managers should learn and develop strategies to adapt the postal services to the changed situation. “The postal workforce will need to become skilled and well informed. Human resource development will become the key to the success of India Postal managers will need to innovate, encourage participation and lead change,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Shakeel Ahmad said the postal network in the Asia Pacific region comprises 342,002 permanent post offices, which is 51 per cent of the total number of post offices worldwide.

However, it is manned by 1,715,000 postal employees, which is 31 per cent of the worldwide postal staff.

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Postal network in India must use technology for new services

Posted by | Nov 27, 2007 | |

The country’s vast postal network can use new technologies for providing microfinance services, set up e-knowledge centres and extend banking facilities in rural areas, Communications Minister A Raja said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Executive Council Meeting of Asian Pacific Postal Union (APPU), Raja said the transformation process in postal services was necessary to enable them to respond to change in the new environment of globalisation.

He emphasised on the need for managers to learn, search and scan environment to read changes and quickly develop strategies to adapt the post to the changed situation.

“The postal workforce will need to become skilled and well informed. Human resource development will become the key to the success of Post and managers will need to innovate, encourage participation and lead change,” he said.

Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Shakeel Ahmad said the postal network in Asia Pacific region comprises 342,000 permanent post offices. This accounts for 51 per cent of the total number of post offices worldwide, manned by 17.15 lakh employees.

The anomaly in the percentage of employees to the number of Post Offices needed to be changed, he added.

India Post is hosting the 30th Asian Pacific Postal Union, Executive Council (APPU-EC) Meeting from November 27 to December 1, 2007 here with an aim to exchange views and discuss matters of mutual interest so as to strengthen co-operation amongst postal administrations and postal service providers in the Asia-Pacific region.

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India: Modernisation of postal department

Posted by | Nov 26, 2007 | |

The Department of Posts has submitted a proposal to the Planning Commission for computerization of 17598 Departmental Post Offices and 64,000 Branch Post Offices and network all computerized offices; provide Automatic Mail Processing Centres; Provide Remotely managed Franking Machines and Cash Counting Machines and Provide anywhere anytime banking.

Following steps have been taken by the Department to enhance the revenue earning ability of the organization: Business Development and Marketing Directorate has been set up in the Department of Posts. It aims at developing new products and services and aims to make Department of Posts a customer oriented organization with business approach; A number of business products like Speed Post, Express Parcel Post and Business Post have been introduced; Value additions like collection from customer premises, credit facility, volume based discounts, door to door delivery, online track and trace system, pre-mailing services etc. have been introduced; Retail network of the Department of Post has been leveraged for providing new services and generating additional revenue and The department has taken initiatives to work out various business alliances and partnership with public and private corporations for leveraging the postal network in rural as well as urban areas.

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Parcel providers to expand in Asia

Posted by | Nov 26, 2007 | |

DHL is investing USD 175 million to build the DHL Express North Asia Hub at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Shanghai. According to a statement from DHL, the development of the North Asia Hub is part of DHL’s “hubs and spokes” regional air network strategy. “Hubs like Shanghai, are optimally positioned to reduce transit times and distances within the regions but also ensure that the region is better connected with the rest of the world. Shanghai will provide added flexibility for its customers with guaranteed Time Definite morning delivery for more major cities in North Asia.”

In an interview with Bloomberg, Jerry Hsu, DHL’s president of Greater China, said, “It’s the right location with the resources in the Yangtze River Delta and China’s economic growth.”

The facility at Pudong should be opened by the second half of 2010.

But TNT is taking a different approach in Asia. Rather than focusing solely on air freight for small parcel shipments in Asia, TNT is focusing on developing a road-based network to reduce costs of shipping parcels across Asia.

In a recent Reuters report, Onno Boots, TNT’s managing director for Southeast Asia, says TNT is seeking a niche between fast-but-costly air transport and slow-but-cheap sea freight, which accounts for about two thirds of the intra-Asia market.

TNT’s plan is to develop a road infrastructure in Asia as it has done in Europe.

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