Tag: Middle East

Regional postal heads review progress of inter-GCC express mail service 'Gulf Express'

Posted by | Oct 28, 2008 | |

Postal heads from Arab countries meeting in Qatar for the 21st postal high committee meeting gave the green signal for the implementation of Gulf Express, an improved express mail service for GCC countries.
The officials, who included under-secretaries of postal ministries and directors-general of posts, reviewed the business plan submitted by the Riyadh-based newly appointed manager of the project and asked for an operational plan.

The meeting also decided that the Gulf countries will henceforth take part in international stamp exhibitions under the name of the ‘GCC Countries Group’, in an effort to promote Arab solidarity and philatelic excellence.

Among the other topics was a review of the proposed pan-GCC logistics company owned by GCC postal organizations.

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UAE residents can register for national identity cards at post offices

Posted by | Oct 27, 2008 | |

Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) and Emirates Post have joined hands to provide registration facilities for the National Identity Card through post offices across the UAE.

The move follows the appointment of Emirates Marketing and Promotions (EMP), a subsidiary of Emirates Post Holding, by EIDA as the exclusive agent for managing the registration for Population Register and national ID cards.

Members of the public can buy special envelops, priced Dh 40 (USD 10.88), from post offices, fill up the registration form and submit the envelope to the post office counter.

As part of its responsibility, EMP will scrutinise the forms. If there is an error in the data, customer will be informed by SMS or by the call centre.

Emirates Post will then send the completed forms to the applicant through his P.O. Box, mentioning the date on which he can go to the EIDA centre to submit the form and acquire the identity card.

As an incentive, Emirates Post has announced a three-month promotion for those registering at post offices, offering members of the public three laptops and other attractive prizes in monthly draws to be held between October and December 2008.

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New players boost competition in CEP market

Posted by | Oct 21, 2008 | |

Competition in the region’s courier, express and parcel (CEP) market is set to grow following the entry of a new player, Economic Zones Post (EZ Post) Fzco.

Industry sources believe the development will help transform the sector and boost its performance, with growth expected to reach 30 per cent.

EZ Post FZE, a subsidiary of Economic Zones World (EZW), has signed a joint-venture agreement with PostaPlus, the first licensed private postal operator in the Middle East, to form EZ Post Fzco in a step aimed at consolidating its mailroom operations.

EZ Post FZE and PostaPlus own 51 per cent and 49 per cent of EZ Post FZCO’s shares respectively.

The company, operating from the Jebel Ali Free Zone, will provide comprehensive services such as mail, courier, mailroom operations, sorting and storage, document scanning and verification and business centre solutions to EZW Group companies and their clients.

“The CEP market reflects the regional industrial state and the growth therein,” said Michael Ross, Managing Director of Global Logistics of Dubai. “CEP is a market with high potential and its growth is directly related to the region’s gross domestic product. EZ Post will help create competitiveness in the sector, which will lead to fast growth.”

He said the rising level of regional trade coupled with continuing industrialisation meant CEP services were of increasing importance to the majority of industries.

“New players can increase quality awareness among consumers and compel companies to maintain quality standards across their international operations.”

Salma Hareb, CEO of EZW, said the new business was focused on delivering high-quality services.

“EZ Post is a strategic initiative designed to streamline our mail and postal services to achieve greater efficiency, better quality and lower cost,” he said. “At present more than 25,000 mail service transactions are carried out by Jafza per month, creating a need for a consolidated structure.”

“We have partnered with PostaPlus, who will serve as manager and partner for EZ Post to help us achieve the best possible results.”

EZ Post Fzco will be responsible for all courier and postal requirements of EZW, its subsidiaries and their clients. Services include the seamless tracking of transactions from pick-up to delivery, faster processing of transactions achieved through the verification of documents prior to pick-up, and round-the-clock assistance to clients via a toll-free and IT helpdesk.

Nabil bin Salama, Chairman of PostaPlus, said the roadmap chalked out for EZ Post was designed to provide faster, more flexible and reliable services.

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Western Union and Orascom Telecom join forces to pilot mobile money transfer service

Posted by | Oct 20, 2008 | |

The Western Union Company announced that it has created an alliance with Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. (“Orascom Telecom”), one of the largest mobile operators in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Orascom Telecom and Western Union plan to work together to introduce mobile remittance services in select markets. The services aim to make low-principal, high-frequency remittances more convenient to the millions of consumers who send money every day.
The mobile money transfer service connects mobile operators to Western Union’s for processing cross-border remittances. Once connected to Western Union’s service, mobile operators use their own “mobile wallet” software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union’s global remittance network. The Mobile Money Transfer service enables consumers to transfer money to or from mobile wallets and is being introduced into the global network of Western Union Agent locations for cash-to-mobile and mobile-to-cash transactions.

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Afghan postal service booms – ministry

Posted by | Oct 9, 2008 | |

Since 1928, when postal services were first introduced to the country, Afghanistan has developed its postal system, with more than 460 nationwide post offices, 10,000 post boxes and seven privately owned postal companies.
On Thursday, the world celebrated International Post Office Day, whcih served as a reminder of how far the country’s postal system had come since 2001.
Afghanistan’s postal service was destroyed during the Soviet Invasion and the following years of civil war.
But,in the past six years, the postal service has been revived, a spokesman for the Communication Ministry, Abdulhadi Hadi, said.
Hadi said the government had made about Afg52 million (USD 1.097) from its postal service in the first six months of the year, a figure up 30 pct on the same time last year.
The ministry hopes to double this figure by the end of the year.

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