The President of India Pranab Mukherjee and UPU Director General Bishar A. Hussein have urged Posts to move with the times and improve quality of service levels to meet customer expectations.
Bishar A. Hussein lights the inaugural lamp at the New Delhi congress as Pranab Mujkherjee (centre left), Killi Kruparani, Indian state minister of communications (in red and white) and Padmini Kopinath, India Post director general (right) look on
Addressing postal delegates from more than 40 nations, they were both speaking on the first day of the Asian Pacific Postal Union’s quadrennial congress in New Delhi, India.
“Posts everywhere are now changing by adopting new technologies and innovations,” said Hussein during his opening speech. “The ripple effect of this on society and the economy is immeasurable.”
For his part, the Indian president was clear about the challenges the postal sector faces. “The changing global scenario calls for postal administrations around the world to think differently,” Mukherjee told delegates.
“There is a rising public expectation about postal services conforming to the same standards of quality, accountability and transparency that are being provided by other market players,” he added.
One opportunity for Posts to exploit was the growing popularity of e-commerce. “Posts worldwide are experiencing a big boom in parcel services and we must all take advantage of this new phenomenon,” said Hussein.
Spirit of joy
Quality of service too is crucial to the postal sector’s future. “Every personnel working in the postal sector should remember what Mahatma Gandhi, the father of this nation, had once said: ‘Service that is rendered without joy helps neither the servant or the served. But all other pleasures as possessions pale into nothingness before service, which is rendered in a spirit of joy,’” said the Indian president.
Referring to the Indian president’s presence at the congress, Hussein added that it was ‘a great honour for the postal fraternity and sent a strong message to other governments about the Post’s important role in the socio-economic development of their countries’.
Improving quality of service is the top priority for Posts in Asia-Pacific under the UPU’s world postal strategy for 2013-16. The region has almost half of the world’s postal establishments, comprising more than 310,000 post offices.
Strong performance
In 2011, the region’s postal operators generated 11.7 billion SDR in revenues, more than 60 per cent of which was generated through postal financial services. Some 20 per cent was generated by letter post, while almost 12 per cent came from parcels and logistics services.
The region witnessed continuous growth in domestic parcel traffic in recent years, averaging 3.8 per cent annually from 2006 to 2011, compared to a worldwide rate of 2.1 per cent.
The number of domestic items reached 341 million in 2011, with 86 per cent of volumes concentrated in China, India and Korea. International parcel volumes swelled by 3 per cent annually from 2006 to 2011 – compared to worldwide growth of 5.3 per cent - with China and Hong Kong accounting for more than half of the region’s 4.7 million cross-border items in 2011.
The APPU is a UPU restricted union - a regional association of designated postal operators - with 36 member countries. Its congress runs from September 3-7 where discussions will focus on how to implement the world postal strategy on a regional level to modernize the Asia-Pacific postal network.
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