Sumitomo Corp. and Sagawa Express Co. said Friday they will form a joint venture with a major Chinese trucking firm in July to launch cargo delivery services in Shanghai and surrounding areas.
The joint venture will be China’s first door-to-door parcel delivery company, Sumitomo and Sagawa said.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Sunday he expects private firms to enter into the mail delivery service after a set of bills on postal services deregulation is passed through the Diet.
“We’ll carry out what can be done with government ordinances, ministerial decrees and a manual. We hope the private sector will exercise ingenuity,” Abe said on a Fuji Television program.
The Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi endorsed two of the four bills that have been drafted to set up a public corporation to take over the three main services of the post office and to enable private companies to provide mail delivery. The remaining two will be approved on May 7.
The bills were fiercely opposed by some members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and they were endorsed without the blessings of the LDP leadership.
Yamato Transport Co. said Friday it has abandoned plans to enter into the mail delivery service industry, as the government’s moves to privatize the field are likely to put too many requirements on new entrants.
The contents of the privatization plan seem to “put private companies on a short leash, and you cannot expect fair competition,” said Keiji Aritomi, the president of Japan’s largest parcel delivery service operator, at a press conference.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday called on his Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) partners in the tripartite ruling bloc to cooperate on quickly enacting four postal services deregulation bills.
In a meeting with the party leaders and secretaries general at his official residence, Koizumi urged them to discuss the legislation altogether despite the fact the LDP is split over some deregulation measures, LDP Secretary General Taku Yamasaki told reporters.
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