UPU News : Ministerial conference: governments must share postal vision

UPU News : Ministerial conference: governments must share postal vision

31.08.2012 - AT LEAST 20 MINISTERS HAVE CONFIRMED THEIR PARTICIPATION AS SPEAKERS AT THE UPU'S MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON 8 OCTOBER 2012.

The conference, during the 25th Universal Postal Congress, will invite government officials to discuss the future of the postal sector, in the light of major technological and social transformations.

Corrado Passera, Italy’s minister of economic development, infrastructure and transport and a former head of Poste Italiane, Cezar Alvarez, Brazil’s deputy minister of communication, Tatsuo Kawabata, Japan’s minister for internal affairs and communication, Nikolay A. Nikiforov, Russia’s minister of telecom and mass communications, and Ma Junsheng, director general of China’s State Post Bureau, join the line-up of high-level governmental officials who will speak at the conference.

The International Telecommunication Union's Hamadoun Touré and the World Trade Organization's Harsha Singh will also take part. Her Royal Highness the Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations special advocate for inclusive finance for development, will deliver remarks via video link on the postal sector’s role in fostering economic and social inclusion.

FORMIDABLE TOOL

“We want to hear from governments how they intend to make the postal sector a motor of socioeconomic development and social cohesion,” says UPU Director General Edouard Dayan."With the decline of letter-post volumes, Posts must be innovative and diversify the business. As we can see in several countries, a postal network that is adapted can be a formidable tool for developing trade, financial inclusion, social cohesion and solidarity."

In addition to exploring the impact of the technological revolution and its opportunities for the postal sector, the ministerial conference will look at the postal sector’s role in facilitating global trade and in social and economic inclusion.

More than 1,500 people have already registered for the 25th Universal Postal Congress that taking place from 24 September to 15 October 2012.