25th Universal
Postal Congress officially opens
24.09.2012
- The 25th Universal Postal Congress officially opened in Doha, Qatar, today,
marking the beginning of the three-week meeting, which gathers postal leaders
and stakeholders from the UPU’s 192 member countries to decide on the global
postal sector’s future every four years.
(Congress
is expected to adopt the Doha Postal Strategy, the UPU's future roadmap)
A number
of crises have characterized the last four years, bringing new, unprecedented
challenges for the postal sector and the UPU, said Edouard Dayan, director
general of the Universal Postal Union, during the opening plenary session.
“These new realities have known no borders and have extended to all postal
operators worldwide, regardless of their level of development. The Congress
that opens today must champion the values of our organization: universality,
solidarity and communication among peoples,” Dayan said. “This Congress
embraces the values of the postal community, but also heralds the future, that
of a modernized, efficient and solid organization, and of global postal
services at the heart of the economy, trade and the information society,” he
added.
Held
under the theme “New world, new strategy”, the 25th Universal Postal Congress hopes to
adopt the Doha Postal Strategy, the UPU’s strategic document for the future. It
underlines the postal network’s three dimensions – physical, electronic and
financial – as well as interconnection, governance and development as key axes
to strengthen postal services worldwide.
Over the
next three weeks, more than 2,200 registered delegates will examine many
proposals to modify the rules and regulations governing the exchange of
international mail as well as major documents recommending the way forward in
areas such as postal financial services, quality of service, postal security, e-commerce
and trade facilitation.
During
the opening plenary, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recognized
the role of the global postal network in social and economic development in a
message to Congress. “Postal services are universal. They connect people
throughout the world,” he said. The UPU is a specialized agency of the United
Nations for postal services.
Abdul
Rahman Ali Al-Aqaily, chairman of the General Postal Corporation of Qatar, was
also officially designated as Congress chairman during the opening plenary.
Opening
ceremony
Earlier
in the day, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Heir Apparent,
attended the morning’s opening ceremony organized by the State of Qatar,
alongside Qatar’s minister of culture, arts and heritage, Dr Hamad Bin
Abdulaziz Bin Ali Al Kuwari, the UPU’s Edouard Dayan, and Saudi Arabia’s
minister of telecommunications and information technology, Mohammed Jamil Bin
Ahmed Mulla, and other dignitaries.
As host
of the Congress, Qatar will also automatically assume the chairmanship of the
UPU’s Council of Administration for 2013-2016. Countries will be elected to the
UPU’s official bodies, the Council of Administration and the Council of Postal
Operations, on 10 October, following the election of a new director general and
deputy director general for the UPU whose mandate will run for four years
starting in January 2013.
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