A younger new leadership team took charge at the Universal Postal Union this week promising to moveahead with modernisation and innovation measures for the worldwide postal sector.
Kenya’s Bishar Hussein took up the post of UPU director general with Switzerland’s PascalClivaz as deputy director general. The new head of the United Nations specialised agency for postalservices is the first director general from sub-Saharan Africa.
Hussein said at a handover ceremony that he is committed to strengthening the global postalnetwork by ensuring that all countries, from industrialised countries to developing ones, are fullyintegrated into the postal community. “We must address the needs of all UPU member countries in aninclusive manner,” said the former ambassador and chief executive officer of the Kenyan Post.
He also assured dignitaries and member countries he would work with all stakeholders toimplement the Doha Postal Strategy, the organisation’s four-year roadmap adopted at the UniversalPostal Congress held in Qatar at the end of 2012. He said the strategy was based on a strong visionof a postal sector as an essential component of the global economy. “As director general, it willbe my duty and commitment to implement this strategy in an efficient manner for the benefit of allmember countries.”
Clivaz said that the new management’s task would be to think up solutions for a communicationsector at a crossroads, as social habits evolve in the wake of technological evolutions and globalcrises. “Consumption patterns are ever changing, and economic constraints have caused many torethink their public investments. Consequently, within the framework of a renewed pact for thesector, we must offer new openings, innovations and opportunities, so that the postal sectorbecomes not only an instrument of public power, but also a preferred lever for economic players.”
Hussein and Clivaz have each been elected by the UPU member countries for a four-yearmandate, renewable by election at the next Congress, to be held in 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey.
The global postal sector has many challenges in the face of market liberalisation, increasedcompetition and the rapid evolution of communication technologies that are changing the face ofpostal services worldwide, the UPU pointed out. As physical mail volumes decline, new communicationand information technologies and the growth of e-commerce are opening up a swath of newopportunities for the world’s Posts in postal financial services, parcels and small-packagedelivery, and logistics and postal e-services, among others. The UPU recently launched the .posttop-level sponsored domain, a secure Internet space for the postal industry to interconnect andprovide secure global postal services.
More than 368 billion letter-post items and 6 billion parcels are delivered annually by theworld’s postal services, many of which also provide financial, logistics and electronic services.
