09/10/2005 - World Post Day message from the Director General of the UPU International Bureau
The Postal sector – An essential partner for the information society
With just a few weeks to go before this November’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which will be held in Tunis (Tunisia), I wish to recall, on the occasion of World Post Day 2005, the important role played by the postal sector in reducing the digital divide around the world.
With huge challenges facing the international community, the postal sector is increasingly a partner of choice in the realization of the WSIS objectives, and is committed to working closely with governments, the private sector, other international organizations and representatives of civil society to bring the information society within reach of millions of people who currently lack access to the Internet or to information and communication technologies.
According to the action plan adopted after the first phase of the WSIS, in December 2003, the establishment of an infrastructure that provides access to information and communication technologies forms the bedrock of an integrated information society. With more the 660,000 post offices around the world, and a labour force of more than five million men and women, postal services are ideally placed to help make this is a reality, and I am pleased to note that, in many countries, the postal sector is doing exactly that.
The Post is present almost everywhere – even in the remotest corners of many countries – and serves as a key point of access to the outside world. Its doors are open to all, without discrimination, making it a fundamentally universal phenomenon, a force for integration. Today, the post office is so much more than the place you go to send or receive a letter or parcel; it is also a hub for electronic and financial services. For Bhutanese students living far away from their country’s capital, it provides a means of accessing their exam results via the Internet, while for thousands of Brazilians living in small communities along the Amazon, it offers direct access to the financial services they previously lacked, enabling the to a save for the future and collect their pensions more quickly and easily, and in turn to reinvest in the local economy and lead more independent lives. Access to new information and communication technologies also means the ability to send a confidential electronic message securely, certified by an electronic postmark showing who sent it and when. And it provides a means of receiving parcels containing goods ordered over the Internet.
The world postal network has evolved greatly over the past few years. It is pushing back the physical, digital and financial frontiers through the effective use of new technologies. More the ever before, the activities of the postal sector area helping to build national economies and reduce poverty around the world. A good example of this is the phenomenon of international migration and money transfers. According to the UN, migrant workers make up 3% of the world’s population. These workers often leaver their homelands to earn a salary that will enable then to build a better life for the family the leave behind. According to World Bank figures, migrant workers transferred sums totalling 110 billion USD being transferred, customers require services that are not only reliable but affordable too. Moreover, after direct investments, money transfers are the second biggest source of funding for developing countries. Thank to the worldwide financial network, based on cutting-edge technology, which the Universal Postal Union is helping to build, migrant workers, and millions of their fellow citizens, are set to benefit from a wider range of services, and the ability to perform time-certain money transfers at very reasonable cost.
On this day, 9 October, World Post Day 2005, I invite people all around the world to pay a visit to a post office and find out what it has to offer. I am confident they will find services which are better adapted than ever to the new information society. By the same token, I invite governments, the private sector, international organizations and members of civil society who share our desire to bridge the digital divide to work in partnership with the postal sector, with all its tremendous assets and skills. Together, by creating lasting partnership, we can provide millions of people with fairer access to communication and information: a human right and, for the postal sector, a core mission.
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