Upgrading posts and telecom sectors on the cards

By Uditha KUMARASINGHE

World Post Day is celebrated on October 9 every year to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in the Swiss capital, Berne on October 9, 1874. It was declared World Post Day by the UPU Congress held in Tokyo, Japan in 1969. Since then, countries participate annually in the celebration.

Today the UPU with 189 member countries, oversees the coordination of the global postal service, the world's largest physical distribution network.

The postal services in many countries use the event to introduce or promote new postal products and services.

The Posts and Telecommunication Ministry will celebrate this year's World Post Day on a grand scale, to create an effective public awareness on the valuable role played by the Sri Lanka Post in the day-to-day lives of people and businesses, not only as a means of communication but also as an essential driver of economic growth.

Posts and Telecommunication Minister Jeewan Kumaratunga in an interview with the Sunday Observer commented on the moves taken by the Ministry to celebrate this year's World Post Day and the developments taken place in the country's posts and telecommunication sectors under Mahinda Chinthana.

According to the Minister the main ceremony to mark the Day is scheduled to be held at the Postal Headquarters, Colombo on October 9, which would be the 136th anniversary celebrations of the world's postal history. Nearly 5,000 postal employees covering all the provinces are due to attend this ceremony.

The ceremonies will also be held separately in eight provinces in connection with the main ceremony. To mark the Day, the Ministry had conducted an arts festival in Colombo recently to appreciate the various artistic talents of the postal employees. In addition, a sports festival was also conducted in Anuradhapura with the participation of over 3,000 postal employees.

The Ministry will open 12 post offices in the Eastern Province during October to mark the Day. There were around 300 post offices in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces. Of them over 100 post offices had been destroyed due to terrorist activities.

At present the Ministry is in the process of reconstruction for which Rs. 30 million has been allocated. The Ministry has handed over 500 bicycles and four vans for delivery purposes.

Minister Kumaratunga said Sri Lanka Post with a 207-year history is one of the oldest State departments in the country. The department renders to every section of the people irrespective of their positions. "With the surge in new information and communication technologies, many wondered whether posts really do have a future and my response is a categorical 'yes'. Posts offer a whole host of services both traditional and new, to meet the communication needs of billions of people and business everyday", he said.

The Minister said as one of the pioneering State ventures, the Sri Lanka post consists of 23,000 employees with 647 main post offices and 3,500 sub post offices.

"At present our postal service has not been able to compete with other institutions due to lack of changes made within its structure in keeping with world socio-economic trends.

The new technologies are changing the concept of communication almost everyday. Therefore, the Posts are changing too and showing that they can also be innovative. As a remedy to the situation, the Ministry has made arrangements to network all 647 main post offices and 3,500 sub post offices", he said.

The Ministry has entered into an agreement with the Moratuwa University for the networking system. With this the ministry will introduce 13 major services to the consumers including e- money transfer, online bill payments, e-postage services, delivery of items against e-signatures, Internet shopping, email and Internet facilities. The first stage of this program is expected to be completed by the end of December this year. Rs. 600 million has been allocated to implement the first stage of this program. The Ministry has already completed half of the networking activities under the first stage.

The Ministry intends to introduce a new system to deliver letters and parcels to the residents in Colombo city limits, within a day and the suburbs in two days. Under the present system, complaints pour in about delay of seven days.

Commenting on the safety of the Sri Lankan postal service, the Minister said even if computer technology has been utilised worldwide for the safety of letters and other goods delivered via post, we have not been able to use modern IT technology in the Sri Lankan postal service. In future, track and trace system will be introduced to the postal service using computer technology.

This will be introduced as a new service under the project implemented to networking the postal service. According to this track and trace system, a bar code will be given to each letter and parcel to be delivered while the consumers via internet will be able to check the post office in which that letter was posted and the post office which is going to be received that letter.

Minister Kumaratunga said if our postal service is further conducted according to by the existing system, it would be difficult to prevent it to turn into the position of a museum within the next 10 years. The key reason to this situation is due to lack of use modern technology in the postal sector.

Therefore, the Ministry with the help of postmen has decided to introduce channelling of doctors, payment of all kinds of bills and deliver their ordered goods to their doorsteps. The Ministry through the postal service plans to give a computer to each youth on easy payment scheme with the intention to Sri Lankan youth to the concept of a global village.

The Philatelic Bureau which is in three locations will be taken over by the Ministry. This would facilitate to streamline the functions of the Bureau as well.

This would also prevent various malpractices taking place in the issue of stamps by providing the opportunity to the people in any part of the country to purchase stamps through the Sri Lanka Post. Steps will also be taken to introduce a national stamp policy during the first quarter of next year.

After this policy has been introduced, initiatives will be taken to issue only 35 stamps per year. At present stamps are issued based on various political and other reasons without any standard. As a result sometimes our stamps have lost their real value.

Asked whether the Government has taken any decision to privatise the service, the Minister said privatisation of government institutions has been completely omitted by Mahinda Chinthana. The policy of the President is to further strengthen and safeguard the State sector.