Tag: Mail Services

India is a priority market for Western Union

Posted by | Apr 26, 2008 | |

Western Union, one the largest players in the multi-billion dollar remittance market, is upbeat about the growth of money transfer business in India. Western Union offers services through an extensive network in assistance with banks, post offices, and retailers. In this interview Anil Kapur, MD – South Asia, Western Union, talks about the company’s journey so far in India and challenges ahead.

NDTV: Tell us more about your growth story in remittance business in India?

Anil Kapur: There are over 200 million migrants around the world and the remittance market is estimated at nearly USD 369 billion. India in the past five years has become the largest receiver of remittances anywhere in the world beating China, Mexico and Philippines. Western Union entered India few years back seeing the growth in emerging markets like India and China.

NDTV: Why do you shifted your focus towards India?

Anil Kapur: At the start of the decade a lot of people from small parts of India were finding it difficult to get employment opportunities within cities, so they started to migrate to foreign countries and that is where you started to see the boom of Indian population in various countries. At that time the rupee was weak and people were more attracted to go abroad and send money to India, which made us to start looking at the Indian market.

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AN Post – Another Bad Day At Blackrock

Posted by | Apr 26, 2008 | |

Irish postal operator AN Post, is trying clear a serious mail backlog’ at Blackrock (Dublin) Mail Delivery Office. The backlog is said to be the result of a row with local postal staff over changes to working conditions. Parcels and Post Office Counter services are said to be unaffected.

The Blackrock Mail Delivery Office serves Booterstown, Blackrock, Mount Merrion, Kilmacud and Stillorgan. Efforts to minimise delays, continue as AN Post and the Communications Workers’ Union attempt to resolve the present difficulties and restore normal service but some mail in the backlog is said to be already more than a week old.

Daily mail deliveries are continuing in Dublin 4, however customers are being advised not to post to the affected district which includes the areas of Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Ringsend and Sandymount.

AN Post currently employs 9,500 people through retail, processing and delivery points.

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Kuwait To Privatise Postal Service

Posted by | Apr 25, 2008 | |

The Arab Times reports that the Assistant Undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Communication for Postal Sector Saud Abdulaziz Al-As’ousi says that his country was working hard to update its postal system and introduce the latest technologies.

“Kuwait has developed a vision for privatizing the postal system under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication,” he revealed in statements to KUNA on the sidelines of the 16th meeting of the Arab Standing Committee on Postal Services. “Privatization is the best solution for the problems of the post sector,” he pointed out. “Kuwait has developed a plan to modernize its 63 post offices thoroughly in order to better serve the citizens,” said Al-As’ousi who leads Kuwait delegation to the meeting.

“The three-day meeting mulled ways to reorganize the postal services in the Arab countries and separate between the posts of legislation, organization, and reform and development. “It probed the plan to initiate a pan-Arab database including all postal reforms, legislations and controls,” he disclosed. “The meeting also explored ways to promote postal exchanges among the Arab countries, and reviewed the measures aimed to combat money laundering and narcotics through postal systems. “The conferees set up a panel to organize the celebrations marking the development of the Arab postal systems.

“The celebrations will be held on the fringe of the Nairobi conference, Kenya, later this year. “The Arab panel is also assigned to review the progress made towards implementation of the Universal Postal Convention of Bucharest,” Al-As’ousi went on to say. “The Arab Standing Committee on Postal Services will meet several times to arrange positions of the Arab countries ahead of the Universal Postal Union Strategy Conference, due in Geneva in July, 2008. “Arab toolkits will be formed to arrange for the global conference in line with the decision of the 23rd meeting of the executive office of the Arab communication ministers council, held at the Cairo-seated Arab League last January,” he added.

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Russian Red Hat Test Could Reach 57k

Posted by | Apr 25, 2008 | |

The Russian postal service has started testing a new IT system aimed at linking all of Russia’s post offices. The new system is based on Linux Red Hat.

Russian Post says if the present tests prove to be a success, it will continue to build on Linux Red Hat and develop a comprehensive network system throughout Russia.

Linux, which continues to challenge Microsoft, is proving popular with many large businesses. The present testing phase is expected to last from 2-3 months. Russian Post says it hopes to install the new software in 57 thousand operation counters and 70 thousand working places in over 42 thousand post offices.

Russian Post and American company Red Hat signed the Protocol of intentions on IT development based on open freeware in March 2008. The parties agreed to join efforts to implement operating system Linux and other software products with open code in Russian Post’s IT-structure.

The savings through transfering to Linux will save Russian Post considerable money in licence fees and still allow it to further develop its own systems. The preset IT system is being adapted by developers in Russia to run on Linux.

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Sri Lanka Postal Department to offer international money transfer services

Posted by | Apr 24, 2008 | |

Sri Lanka Postal Department is planning to set up an international money transfer service in collaboration with Western Union to enhance the foreign currency inflow to the country.

A proposal in this regard submitted by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mahinda Wijesekara received the Cabinet approval today. Under the agreement Western Union will be investing in the infrastructural development of the Postal Department to enable Post Offices to act as money transfer agents. Postal employees will be trained on new info-tech such as computers and internet usage to carry out the new services.

Department of Posts will receive 25 pct of the revenues generated from the transactions done through the post offices. Sri Lankan government hopes to curb terrorist financing through the new measure.

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