UPU News:-Doha Congress set to begin

Although technology is making it easier and faster to communicate than ever before, it cannot cancel the role of the Post, said Dr Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, Qatar’s minister of culture, arts and heritage, at today’s opening press conference for the 25th Universal Postal Congress.

l. to r.: Q-Post Chairman A. Al-Aqaily, Minister Dr H. Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, and UPU Director General E. Dayan

“These changes actually reaffirm the Post’s role and that’s why we require a new strategy, as the theme of the Congress, ‘New world, new strategy’, reflects,” said the minister. The Congress officially begins tomorrow in Doha.

Al-Kuwari stressed the importance of the ministerial conference that will take place on 8 October, saying that this will be an important step forward in shaping the postal sector’s future orientation.

UPU Director General Edouard Dayan said the original principles that have guided the UPU since its creation almost 140 years ago still apply today: the UPU is devoted to building a worldwide postal territory and creating a world without borders, giving every citizen a chance to communicate and exchange through the postal network, as well as organizing the free movement of messages, goods and money to facilitate communication and trade. “Although communication has undergone a profound transformation since the UPU was created, new technologies are providing opportunities for the postal sector to develop and adapt to the new realities of today,” he said.

The 25^th Universal Postal Congress is expected to formally adopt the Doha Postal Strategy, the global postal sector’s roadmap for 2013-2016, whose successful implementation relies on a regional approach.

Dayan said the 25^th Universal Postal Congress will be an important one, given the many issues to be discussed – from adopting postal security standards to facilitate the mail’s air transportation to how Posts can work efficiently with customs authorities to move the mail more efficiently and how countries remunerate each other for processing each other’s mail. Indeed, many proposals on the rules that govern the sending of mail across borders will be examined, explained the director general.

Other Congress highlights include the election of new UPU management on 10 October.

The 25^th Universal Postal Congress is hosted by the State of Qatar in cooperation with Qatar Post and under the patronage of the country’s emir, His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.