Giorgio Pomponi of Poste Italiane became this morning the new chairman of the UPU Telematics Cooperative.
This election – the first major development of the 2009 Postal Operations Council session – took place during the Telematics Cooperative's 15th general assembly. Five other countries – Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia – were also in the running.
Giorgio Pomponi, who is responsible for ICT service contracts at Poste Italiane, has worked in the postal sector for three years, but his involvement with new technology at an international level stretches back 28 years.
"During my term of office, I hope to strengthen postal operators’ interconnectivity, as well as access to electronic postal services for the least developed countries," declared Pomponi following his election.
He succeeds Christopher Grosser of Australia Post, who spent 4 years at the helm of the Cooperative.
Through its operational arm, the Postal Technology Centre, the Telematics Cooperative designs, installs, manages and maintains advanced technological applications for the UPU member countries.
The Cooperative has set itself a number of objectives for the cycle leading up to 2012. Amongst other things, it will try to ensure the optimum operation of an affordable interconnected worldwide electronic network which meets EDI standards; it will extend the POST*Net network; and it will promote IPS (International Postal System), the complete tool for managing transmission processes for all categories of mail. Another important project is the opening up of 12 new strategic corridors for electronic money transfers based on the IFS (International Financial System) solution, in operation in 39 countries.
The Telematics Cooperative was founded in 1996, and currently has 128 members.