Statement of the UPU Deputy Director General Pascal Clivaz at the Award Ceremony for 2IPD, Berne, Switzerland, 9 October 2019
Your Excellencies,Directors General,
Distinguished Guests,
Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you have seen by the very time wall unveiled in this hall earlier today, the history of the Post reaches back millennia. But the truly global postal network that we know today is 145 years young.
On this day in 1874, 22 countries gathered together here in Berne to sign a treaty that would create the Universal Postal Union, unifying their separate postal networks into a single postal territory. Today that territory covers the far reaches of 192 countries, with nearly 670,000 post offices and 5.3 million staff serving 7 billion citizens each day.
Our theme for today is “Delivering Development”. Over its 145 years, the UPU has ensured that this network develops with the needs of society. In recent years, this has meant ensuring that the world’s postal operators are equipped to seize on the demand for international e-commerce services.
E-commerce is not only a business opportunity for our industry, but for citizens and small businesses around the world. Those in the far-flung reaches of our planet now have access to the global online market. They can now export their goods on the international stage, contributing to the socio-economic development of their countries.
And the Posts can be the ones to deliver this service – but only if they develop in line with the needs of the market.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Several years ago we created a tool that could help us benchmark the performance of the global postal network, known as the Integrated Index for Postal Development, or 2IPD.
Using billions of records of postal big data, official UPU statistics and UPU surveys, the 2IPD is able to provide a comparative ranking of postal development across more than 170 member countries. This ranking is built on four pillars of the postal service:
- Reliability – our customers expect a service that is both quick and predictable;
- Reach – Posts should have a broad network so their customers can exchange goods internationally;
- Relevance – measuring the demand for the Post’s services;
- and Resilience – accounting for the Post’s capacity to innovate and evolve in a changing environment.
Please join me in congratulating these three countries.
Today we should also recognize the achievements of the leaders in our developing regions: Poland (ranked 11th), the People’s Republic of China (ranked 15th), Tunisia (ranked 47th), Colombia (ranked 51st) and Nigeria (62nd). Let’s give them a round of applause.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Before we hand out awards to celebrate the standout performance of these countries, I must emphasize the fact that our winners today are outliers.
The index has shown us that there are ever-growing development gaps between regions. As I said before, I believe the Posts can be the ones to deliver, but these inequalities between regions put our ability to lead global e-commerce at risk. In coming together to bridge these gaps, we can unleash the true potential of consumers, MSMEs and postal operators to contribute to the digital economy and the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Next week our governing Councils will gather to review the UPU’s Vision 2030, which has highlighted as a priority the need for governments to decrease gaps in postal development through investment and policy-making.
As always, the UPU remains a support for the entire postal sector, providing a forum where all players can gather to discuss the industries challenges and opportunities, offering affordable technical solutions and acting as a knowledge centre through research such as the 2IPD.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Without further ado, please join me again in congratulating our winners of this year’s 2IPD awards as we call them to the stage.
I wish you a happy World Post Day.