The 10th Pochtovaya Troika international forum and exhibition opens its doors in St. Petersburg.
The Russian Ministry of Communications, the CEOs of major postal operators and other postal-sector businesses, and Russian and international experts have been meeting at the famous Konstantinovsky Palace to discuss the biggest issues facing the postal sector today, such as the modernization of traditional postal services and the creation of new services.
The programme of the forum, which runs over three days, covers such varied topics as e-commerce, e-governance, the role of the sector in the age of instant communications, financial services, service diversification, and quality improvement.
In his speech, Edouard Dayan, UPU Director General, said the recent financial crisis had demonstrated that there were real opportunities for Posts willing to go down the path of innovation and diversification.
On Thursday, the discussions will turn to the future of the UPU, and the afternoon will be devoted to a round table on the future UPU postal strategy for 2013-2016.
Pochtovaya Troika 2011 includes a series of different events, including the official inauguration of St. Petersburg's new automated mail processing facility, and the signing of a cooperation agreement between Russian Post on the setting up of a regional technical centre.
This new centre will be based at Russian Post's offices in Moscow. Its role will be to assist UPU member countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with the development of the regional electronic network, and in particular money transfers via the UPU's International Financial System application.