Press release: UPU eyes the future as it follows through on decisions made at Abidjan postal congress

Berne. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) starts planning for the future this week with two high profile meetings at its headquarters Berne, Switzerland. From 22-24 November, the UPU's Postal Operations Council (POC), dealing with operational, commercial, technical, economic and technical cooperation matters, discusses the way forward after the Universal Postal Congress held in August.

Opening the plenary session of the POC, the Director General of the UPU Bishar A. Hussein said he was inspired to see everyone back in the meeting room and noted it was a sign of recovery. Mr Hussein sounded an upbeat note when he said, "We will defeat this pandemic." In his own remarks to the POC, the Deputy Director General of the UPU Pascal Clivaz gave a warning and said work needed to be done on ensuring that developing nations had the right postal tools.

Over the three days of the meeting, the POC will discuss the quality of the postal service, digital postal tools, secure payments and numerous other subjects affecting the international postal sector. Representing France, which is the chair of the POC, Jean-Paul Forceville said, "It is vital that work gets started quickly because the sector has changed so quickly. UPU needs to be in a place to keep up with these changes."

On 25 November, a two-day meeting begins of the UPU's governing body, the Council of Administration (CA), to begin the work of the next four year cycle of the UN specialized agency for postal matters. To ensure that the UPU is able to react quickly to changes in the postal environment, the CA has the power to approve proposals by the Postal Operations Council for the adoption of regulations or new procedures between Congresses.

Speaking about the meetings, the representative of Côte d'Ivoire, which is currently the chair of the CA, Isaac Gnamba-Yao said, "I think it is important we maintain the spirit of Abidjan. And we ensure that every voice is made to count in order to ensure that there is no 'us and them' between developed and developing countries. We must work together to implement the initial activities on what is going to be a long road to 2025."

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The Universal Postal Union is a UN specialized agency with its headquarters in the Swiss capital Berne. Established in 1874, it is one of the world's oldest international organizations and is the primary forum for cooperation between postal sector players.

For further information, please contact:
David Dadge
Programme Manager, Communication and Events Programme
Universal Postal Union (UPU)
E-mail: david.dadge[@]upu.int
Mobile: +41 76 457 36 54
Work: +41 31 350 31 23

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