Tag: Middle East

Officials of postal administrations from Arab countries called for a greater role in the global postal strategies and appointed a task force to develop a postal strategy for Arab countries, at the 14th meeting of the Arab Permanent Postal Council held in Amman, Jordan.

A high-level delegation from Emirates Post, comprising Mr. Salem Al Shaya, Assistant Director General, Operations, Abdullah Al Zaabi, Director of Research and Development and Nasser Qadoumi, Acting Manager of Postal Operations, took part in the deliberations. The delegation made a special presentation on the speed post service that will ensure mail delivery within two days across the Middle East.

The meeting was presided over by Mr. Edouard Dayan, Director General, Universal Postal Union, and attended by Mr. Mansour Malhas, Director General of Jordan Post and Mr. Najeeb Abu Laras, UPU Consultant for Arab Region.

The participants reviewed the implementation of the Bucharest 2004 postal strategy in the Arab world and identified issues to be raised at the next UPU Congress to be held in Nairobi in 2008.

The meeting discussed the importance of Arab postal corporations creating postal projects under UPU funding, and submitting them before August 1, 2007. They also resolved to help Palestine Post to strengthen its postal network. It also agreed to update the database of all participating postal corporations and appointed officials in each country to forward the information to the Secretariat and Jordan Post within stipulated timeframe.

The participants urged all postal corporations to take part in the stamp exhibition taking place in Doha in September and called for greater participation in other exhibitions in the region.

Emirates Post’s Ramoul Sorting Centre handled an average of over 1 million pieces of lettermail per day in the first week of April, against the normal average of between 500,000 and 800,000 pieces.

The increasing mail volumes have prompted Emirates Post to increase the sorting capacity by acquiring more advanced sorting machines, which are due to be installed at Ramoul at the end of 2007, with a capacity of 3 million pieces of mail per day.

‘The rising mail volumes are a reflection of accelerated business activity and booming national economy. These volumes endorse UAE’s position as a major business and tourism hub and demonstrate Emirates Post’s ability to handle such huge volumes,’ said Mr. Abdulla Al Daboos, Director General, Emirates Post.

Incoming mail is sorted at the Ramoul Sorting Centre and dispatched to the respective main and sub post offices within 24 hours, to be deposited in P.O. Boxes before 10 am. The outgoing international mail is sent to the Mail Transit Hub at Dubai airport before 2 a.m., processed using state of the art systems and dispatched by regular flights.

As part of the expansion, Emirates Post is building a new postal operations hub adjacent to the existing sorting centre. The three-storey building will house a highly advanced mail sorting facility as well as offices of Electronic Document Centre (EDC), Emirates Marketing & Promotions (EMP) and Training & Development Centre.

The new machines will increase mail sorting capacity by 10 times. The new mail sorting centre will have the ability to automate registered mail processing, automatically redirect mail, handle large-size envelops and heavier mail, read addresses more rapidly and categorise mail as per P.O. Box numbers.