Statement of the Director General at the Awards Ceremony for 2IPD, 8 October 2021
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you might be.
Despite causing disruption to normal life and business, the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic have also led us to open up more opportunities for us to connect with each other virtually than ever before. I want to express my sincere gratitude to those of you who are joining us for today’s celebrations here and online from around the world.
World Post Day is about celebrating the important role that the Post plays in the daily lives of our citizens and the operation of our businesses. With a network of 630,000 post offices and more than 5 million staff, the Post offers an unparalleled physical network for reaching anyone, anywhere.
Our goal at the Universal Postal Union is to ensure we achieve an efficient and accessible single postal territory that can serve the needs of the entire globe. One way we work towards this noble goal is by monitoring the development of the postal network in each country.
It is for this reason that UPU in 2017 we introduced the Integrated Index for Postal Development – also known as the 2IPD – that, among other aspects, provides us a ranking of postal services worldwide.
This year we are honouring Switzerland, Germany and Austria for their outstanding performance in these annual rankings. They have achieved the top three positions respectively in the ranking this year. This year’s ranking is particularly significant given that the performance of our postal organizations has, for more than one-and-half years, been adversely affected by the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The physical dimension of the Post suffered most during the period.
Please join me to convey my special congratulations to Switzerland, which has consistently been ranked as the best performer every year since the exercise begun five years ago.
Ladies and gentlemen,
While are gathered today to celebrate those who led the pack in postal development in the past year, we must, at the same time, also take away some key lessons from this annual study that will help us grow as a sector. The 2IPD study defines key elements that are important ingredients to competitive and robust postal business. These are key components that collectively determine happy customers of our services and profitability of our Posts.
My congratulations also go to Belarus, Brazil, Ghana, Singapore and Tunisia for emerging as the best performers in their respective regions this year.
As we take stock of the results of the rankings over these last five years, we have, however, noted growing developmental gaps between and within regions. This situation has been exacerbated in the past year due to the challenges faced by countries who were already falling behind in ranking.
It is my hope that governments, regulators and designated postal operators will continue to innovate even with the current challenges so as to maintain a robust global postal network. More than ever before consumers now have varied options for services that were earlier only available through the postal system.
As you may be aware, our research team is available to do dedicated individual studies on request but at some affordable fees. We have carried out these dedicated studies for a number of designated operators and pointed out the finer details of the areas that require improvement.
Overall, I wish to thank our designated operators for staying resilient and continuing to be at the service of society even during the pandemic. At the same time, I urge governments and regulators to come up with policies and regulatory frameworks that prioritize postal services as a key national infrastructure to contribute to the socio-economic development of your countries.
I wish you a happy World Post Day.
Thank you.