The Universal Postal Union and Posts worldwide can play a vital role helping SMEs to take advantage
of e-commerce and grow their businesses, according to speakers at the UPU’s 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, several
speakers agreed on the event’s second day yesterday.
Xiaozhun Yi, deputy director general, World Trade Organization, said that to date, large,
multinational organisations have benefitted the most from the explosive development of the
e-commerce sector. But he emphasised that 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, and
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 organisations like UPU take this and put this at the heart of
the agenda.”
Peru’s SERPOST explained how its Exporta Facil (Easy Export) programme enables SMEs to use
online tools to cut red tape, such as electronic customs forms, through the Post, and thus to
reduce their costs. The postal operator automatically receives the information and can immediately
process and dispatch the item abroad. Friberg Quispe Grajeda, director general of SERPOST, said the
postal operator is also reaping benefits, with more than US$18 billion 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,” he told the conference.
Meanwhile, amid declining letter volumes and booming package delivery volumes, posts,
governments and regulators are taking a closer look at universal service obligations as different
approaches emerge 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,”
he 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.
Rounding up the two days of high-level discussions, the UPU said the conference, attended by
750 delegates from 135 countries, demonstrated a recognition that the postal sector is a critical
actor in delivering solutions that foster inclusion and help the international community achieve
its sustainable development goals.
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 recognised 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.
Rounding up the event, UPU Director General Bisher Hessein said 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. “Innovation and the integration of
networks, products and services are key to building a seamless postal network in line with the
changing global environment,” he said.
Looking ahead, Hussein said in his concluding remarks: “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 recognised and exploited by governments, development
partners and international organisations. 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.
In particular, Hussein said the UPU and its members were hearing the message loud and clear
and promised that the organisation 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. At the same time, the wide-ranging changes in
the postal sector had to be supported by appropriate regulation.
The UPU said that insights from the conference will feed the process aimed at drafting the
next world postal strategy to be delivered at the Universal Postal Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, in
September 2016.
