11/05/2015
If you take four steps, I will take
10 steps with you
People still trust postal department:
Even Maoists Do Not Attack Post Offices For Fear of Losing Trust:Communications and IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said
Underscoring the
importance of India Post, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today claimed
that even Maoists don't target the postal network for the fear of losing
people's support.
"People of the country still trust the postal department. I want to tell you a very sensitive thing... There is so much of Maoist violence, but still, the attacks on post is low because they (Maoists) also know that if they try to attack it, the people will be unhappy with them," Prasad said during the launch of a mobile app for India Post.
The Minister suggested that India Post should strive to become the largest player in the e-commerce segment.
"I want that in e-commerce, India Post should become the largest player and you have to do it... If you take 4 steps, I will take 10 steps with you because I am seeing that in India, e-commerce has got a very good future," he said.
Prasad assured the staff that not even a single employee would lose his job even as he exhorted them to change with times.
The postal department has established the e-commerce center at Safdarjang in New Delhi which will handle e-retailing exclusively. It's equipped with modern technology and is capable of handling 30,000 parcels per day.
Leading e-commerce players such as Amazon, Paytm, Yepme, Snapdeal and the like are already using services of India Post.
The mobile app for India Post is android-based and includes features like real-time tracking, post office search and postage calculator.
"People of the country still trust the postal department. I want to tell you a very sensitive thing... There is so much of Maoist violence, but still, the attacks on post is low because they (Maoists) also know that if they try to attack it, the people will be unhappy with them," Prasad said during the launch of a mobile app for India Post.
The Minister suggested that India Post should strive to become the largest player in the e-commerce segment.
"I want that in e-commerce, India Post should become the largest player and you have to do it... If you take 4 steps, I will take 10 steps with you because I am seeing that in India, e-commerce has got a very good future," he said.
Prasad assured the staff that not even a single employee would lose his job even as he exhorted them to change with times.
The postal department has established the e-commerce center at Safdarjang in New Delhi which will handle e-retailing exclusively. It's equipped with modern technology and is capable of handling 30,000 parcels per day.
Leading e-commerce players such as Amazon, Paytm, Yepme, Snapdeal and the like are already using services of India Post.
The mobile app for India Post is android-based and includes features like real-time tracking, post office search and postage calculator.
The postal sector's primary forum for global cooperation.
The postal sector must embrace innovation
15.04.2015 - The UPU'’s World Strategy Conference has ended with a
recognition that the postal sector is a critical actor in delivering solutions
that foster inclusion.
“The UPU and Posts must change. The UPU and Posts will change. Together we will move the world,” said the UPU's Bishar Hussein These solutions can help the international community achieve its sustainable development goals.
However,
said UPU Director General Bishar A. Hussein, the current postal paradigm must
be broken and decision-makers at all levels – government, regulatory and
operational – must embrace innovation to ensure the postal sector’s future.
“My ambition is for us to
deliver together by 2020 a postal world in which our sector’s unique ability to
include populations, economic actors and territories is fully recognized and
exploited by governments, development partners and international
organizations,” said Hussein in his concluding remarks.
“We must deliver a postal
world where innovation is shared, promoted and driven – not as a luxury, but as
a reality for all,” he added.
To achieve this, Hussein
called for a “profound transformation” of the UPU by 2020, with quicker and
more efficient decision-making processes. “The UPU and Posts must change. The
UPU and Posts will change. Together we will move the world,” he said.
Discussions around
inclusion and the need to innovate and strengthen collaboration among all members
of the global supply chain – postal operators, transporters and customs
authorities – dominated the discussions at the UPU’s two-day event in Geneva
with more than 750 delegates in attendance.
“Innovation and the
integration of networks, products and services are key to building a seamless
postal network in line with the changing global environment,” said the director
general.
E-commerce
challenge
Delegates and speakers
highlighted the growth of e-commerce and changing consumer habits as major
challenges facing the global postal sector, with some e-tailers acknowledging
they were developing their own delivery networks. Postal CEOs recognized
e-commerce as an important trade enabler for small and medium-size businesses,
but said postal services needed to respond adequately to this growth or risk
being left behind.
Hussein said the UPU and
its members were hearing the message loud and clear and promised that the
organization would build on its existing e-commerce programme to increase the
reliability of postal networks, the predictability of service delivery and the
transparency of products and services for international customers.
With so much change
happening in the areas of mobile technologies, postal financial services,
logistics, e-commerce and more, delegates called for a renewed approach to how
governments regulate the postal sector. “All of this [change] must be supported
by enabling regulation,” noted Hussein.
Universal
service obligation
The conference also
highlighted the importance of the universal service obligation as an essential
infrastructure supporting inclusion objectives. The global postal network of
some 663,000 post offices is a key asset in extending social, financial and
economic inclusion for citizens and small and medium-size businesses
everywhere.
Some 750 delegates
representing 135 UPU member countries, including ministers, regulators, postal
executives and other postal-sector stakeholders such as leaders of labour
unions, trade and migration organizations and representatives of United Nations
and other international organizations, attended the Strategy Conference, which
was chaired by the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire.
Insights from the
conference will feed the process aimed at drafting the UPU’s next world postal
strategy to be delivered at the Universal Postal Congress in Istanbul, Turkey,
in September 2016.
Strategy,
Geneva 2015, Organization
Posts can
help bridge e-commerce divide for SMEs
14.04.2015
- The UPU and Posts have an important role to play in helping facilitate trade
so that small- and medium-sized companies can take part in the global economy,
said speakers on Day 2 of the World Strategy Conference in Geneva.
With
their vast network of outlets – some 640,000 worldwide – and wide range of
services, including digital, financial and logistics services, postal operators
can help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) become participants
in the global e-commerce market.
To date,
large, multinational organizations have benefitted the most from the explosive
development of the e-commerce sector, according to Xiaozhun Yi, deputy director
general, World Trade Organization.
But Yi
and other speakers agreed there is great potential to grow SMEs, which play a
vital role in many economies around the world. E-commerce can open the door to
new markets and business opportunities for SMEs, while reducing their
transaction costs, increasing their overall competitiveness, Yi explained.
However,
the obstacles preventing SMEs from taking that step are numerous and vary from
country to country. In developing countries, for example, infrastructure is
often a challenge. Barriers include lack of Internet access. Lengthy customs
procedures for exporting goods can also be daunting for SMEs, which cannot
afford to pay a customs broker, as Sandra Davoren, Secretary General of the
Caribbean Postal Union told delegates.
Arancha
Gonzalez, the International Trade Centre’s executive director, believes lower
trading costs are “essential” for SMEs, and are a deciding factor in whether a
small business stays in its domestic market or expands abroad.
“Logistical
efficiency and improvements in the facilitation of trade are essential
ingredients for the competitiveness of SMEs, Gonzalez explained. “It’s very
important that organizations like UPU take this and put this at the heart of
the agenda.”
Peru’s
SERPOST revealed its efforts in this area. In 2007, Peru launched its
participation in the programme designed specifically for SMEs called Exporta
Facil.
Originally
a Brazilian concept, Exporta Facil enables SMEs to use online tools to cut red
tape, such as electronic customs forms, through the Post. The postal operator
automatically receives the information and can immediately process and dispatch
the item abroad.
The
service is also accessible: SMEs can send items 365 days a year at outlets
throughout the country. They also benefit from lower costs, according to
Friberg Quispe Grajeda, director general of SERPOST. The postal operator is
also reaping benefits, with more than 18 billion USD in exports sent via
Exporta Facil to date.
“E-commerce
is growing and our aim as a state is to develop an instrument that facilitates
the delivery of parcels to other destinations,” Grajeda told the conference.
Of
course, the IT revolution has also changed other areas of business for the
post. Amid declining letter volumes and booming package delivery, posts,
governments and regulators are taking a closer look at universal service
obligations. Different approaches are emerging throughout the world. Canada,
for example, is stopping door-to-door mail delivery in favour of community
mailboxes.
In
Europe, where Internet and mobile penetration is high and postal networks are
firmly established throughout rural and urban regions, the future focus should
be on creating a better and more secure network for parcels, according to
Torstein Olsen, director general of Norwegian Post and the Telecommunications
Authority. “A new definition of postal services may be required,” Olsen
said.
In
Africa, in contrast, there is still much work to be done in terms of expanding
the network of postal offices to rural areas so that all citizens have access
to postal services. Ethiopia, for example, has embarked on a project in which
it is transforming telecom centres in rural villages into centres that provide
telecom, IT and postal services.
The lack
of addressing systems is a major issue for Africa as well, according to
Younouss Djibrine, secretary general of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU).
Improving infrastructure is a key pillar in PAPU’s preparations for “tomorrow’s
universal postal service”, along with the diversification of services and
postal regulation.
Strategy,
Geneva 2015, Trade
Speakers
address innovation challenges
14.04.2015
- The innovation challenge facing postal operators worldwide dominated
discussions on the first day at the World Strategy Conference as postal
executives, government representatives and private companies debated how to
best respond and adapt to the rapid changes thrust upon the sector by
technological change.
(L. to
R.) Dimitry Strashnov, director general, Russian Post; Moulay Hafid Elalamy,
Morocco's minister of industry, trade, investment and digital economy; Stefan
Krawczyk, associate general counsel and head, government relations, eBay; Lin
Hongliang, director, Asian-Pacific Postal Union; Peter Somers, moderator
(Photo: UPU/Pierre Alboui)
“Together
we must take stock of our organizations and the postal sector today, and shape
our future tomorrow,” UPU Director General Bishar Hussein told the conference.
The
rapidly expanding e-commerce sector was of particular interest during the
opening day of the conference. While this sector promises great growth for
postal operators, it brings many challenges as well. Consumer demands when it
comes to delivery of e-commerce goods, for example, are changing quickly. As
well, it is still unclear whether e-commerce giants, such as Amazon, are
interested in handling last-mile delivery themselves.
“The
future of commerce is a blurred landscape, where the consumer dictates how,
where and when he will consume,” said Stefan Krawczyk, associate general
counsel and head of government relations at eBay. “That means the delivery
operators will have to adapt to what the consumer dictates.”
Postal
operators are already changing the way they deliver packages, including
introducing package lockers and sending delivery notifications to customers via
text messages. Krawczyk, however, stressed that consumers are looking for
transparency and predictability when it comes to package delivery. A seller in
Europe needs to feel certain that when they send an item to a buyer in South
America, it will arrive on time. They also want the service and pricing to be
transparent and logical, Krawczyk added.
Dimitry
Strashnov, director general of Russian Post, seconded that viewpoint. Postal
operators, for example, should analyze what kind of delivery their customers
need and expect. “Do we need to deliver all the parcels in one day or two
days?” Strashnov asked. “Would a customer be satisfied having three-to-five day
delivery but with a high predictability level. Can we deliver on the promise?
This is getting more and more important today because the cost of five-day
delivery is lower than one day.”
Postal
operators must also be efficient to maintain their profitability, Strashnov
said. This, in turn, allows them to invest in their infrastructure to create
new products.
The
development of new products is an important focus for postal operators
worldwide. Take Saudi Post, which is leveraging its established assets such as
its transportation infrastructure, last-mile delivery network, postal offices
and technology to expand its range of products, according to Mohamed Saleh Ben
Taher Benten, the organization’s chairman and chief executive officer. For
example, Saudi Post has transformed its transportation network into a logistics
network. Its NAQEL logistics joint venture, in which it holds a majority stake,
provides services for many different industries in Saudi Arabia, including
fashion retailers and food processors.
Another
attractive area for expansion is postal financial services. In Indonesia, the
government has asked the Post to conduct a pilot project called the “post
savings account” in six provinces as many people in that country still store
their cash at home, according to Kalamullah Ramli, Indonesia’s director general
of the ministry of communication and information technology.
The
development of such value-added services is what makes Moulay Hafid Elalamy,
Morocco’s minister of industry, trade, investment and digital economy,
optimistic about the future for his country’s postal operator.
“From my
point of view, posts will continue to be profitable in coming years if they
modernize,” Elalamy told the conference.
However,
it’s not just the postal operators that have to adapt, but the rules as well,
according to speakers at the conference. Philippe Wahl, president of France’s
La Poste, said work on the development of the UPU’s global integrated postal
programme, known as ECOMPRO, is necessary for the further development of the
e-commerce market.
“We need
to communicate and exchange information with all members from the UPU,” Wahl
said. “It’s the next big step we are taking together.”
Geneva
2015, Strategy, Organization
Posts
must step out of comfort zone to build their future
13.04.2015
- Bishar Hussein, director general of the Universal Postal Union, has urged the
750 delegates at the organization’s 2015 World Strategy Conference to take a
critical look at how postal services are created and delivered.
Some 750
delegates from 135 UPU member countries are talking strategy in Geneva
“Let’s
step out of our comfort zone and test new ideas upon which we can build the
future of the Post,” said Hussein as the UPU's global meeting got underway
after being officially opened by Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan of Côte
d'Ivoire, the country chairing the event.
The
conference starts the process of drafting the next world postal strategy to be
delivered at the Universal Postal Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2016.
In a
personal message,
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said postal services have a clear
role to play in the UN’s post-development agenda being finalized for adoption
in September. “As the world shapes a new sustainable development agenda and
strives to address the threat posed by climate change, postal services can and
must be part of the solution.”
Postal
activities increasingly focused on logistics and financial services instead of
traditional mail, the growth of e-commerce and the rise of parcel volumes, and
changing consumer behaviours are among various phenomena forcing public postal
services to redefine themselves for the 21st century.
Changing
consumer habits brought on by new technological applications is perhaps one of
the greater challenges facing the postal sector.
“The
modern consumer is digital, concerned with sustainable development, and has a
totally different gauge for the value of a product or service,” said Hussein.
“Clients today want to access services anywhere, anytime. They want products
tailored to their preferred method of consumption, and they want those products
to be delivered at home or right next door.”
And Posts
must see this new reality as an exciting opportunity, not a constraint, added
the director general.
About 135
UPU member countries are represented at the Strategy Conference, which
concludes tomorrow.
Some 40
speakers are taking part in a series of panel discussions covering major themes
such as the role of postal services in trade facilitation and social, financial
and economic inclusion, the role of postal regulation in an ever-evolving
communications market and the importance of innovation in ensuring that postal
services and networks remain relevant in today’s society.
Geneva
2015, Strategy, Organization
Côte
d’Ivoire Prime Minister says Posts open the world to citizens
13.04.2015
- Posts must keep improving to make their services accessible to all citizens
to open new vistas for a better world, according to Prime Minister Daniel
Kablan Duncan of Côte d’Ivoire during the opening of the UPU's World Strategy
Conference.
“Côte
d’Ivoire wants to be one of the players for change,” Prime Minister Duncan said
as he opened the World Strategy Conference.
Technology
should be used to create a forward-looking postal sector, Prime Minister Duncan
added, while addressing international delegates at the Geneva International
Conference Centre on Monday.
“Côte
d’Ivoire wants to be one of the players for change,” Prime Minister Duncan
said.
His
country, the official conference chair, is opting to embrace rather than ignore
the sweeping changes that technology has thrust upon the world. Prime Minister
Duncan believes there are significant opportunities for postal operators in
Côte d’Ivoire and beyond.
The
revitalization of Côte d’Ivoire’s national postal operator is a key government
objective after years of economic and political turmoil. In 2013, the country
introduced a new postal code, replacing one from 1976 to ensure the provision
of a universal postal service for all members of its population regardless of
where they live. In 2014, the postal operator introduced a new international
express service, POST’EXPRESS, for letters and parcels.
The Post
will also benefit from an extensive fibre optic network that is currently being
installed across the West African country, significantly boosting the
population’s access to the Internet. Indeed, the government aims to carve out a
role for the national postal operator in logistics in the e-commerce sector,
according to Bruno Koné, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Post, Information and
Communication Technologies. He pointed out that while consumers can place
orders via their computer, it’s not the computer who will actually deliver the
item. This was one reason why postal operators have great prospects ahead, Koné
told a press conference following the opening ceremony.
The UPU’s
World Strategy Conference is taking place from April 13-14,
Strategy,
Geneva 2015, Organization