2019 Message from the Director General

Delivering development is delivering progress

For 145 years, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has been promoting solutions for the international postal sector. During this time, the postal network has transformed the entire supply chain: from acceptance, through sorting and finally to delivery, the Post has kept pace with change to provide solutions that work.

From manual to mechanized operation, the Post continues to innovate, using modern technology to optimize sorting and delivery and improve the supply chain from beginning to end. By embracing modern developments such as virtual reality, the Internet of Things, blockchain and robotic technologies, among others, the Post is today creating greater flexibility in customer service through the most advanced interfaces. We are now closer to our customers than ever before.

But above all this, the UPU's original philosophy – to serve humanity, and facilitate communication among the citizens of the world – remains the driving force of the global postal network. Every other advancement and innovation in the Post is geared towards supporting the very reason for our existence: changing people's lives for the better. Developing, developed and advanced networks continue to find synergy of purpose to power our single network to deliver efficiently and cost-effectively around the world. We continue to deliver as one.

At every stage of these unique developments, the UPU has offered its steadfast support. Our role is to coordinate, to build partnerships, and to offer solutions. There is, however, another way of viewing our invaluable work. By helping to deliver change, by always striving for innovation and creativity, we have been delivering development to successive generations. Today, the Post is a key component in helping to achieve the goals of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in all countries and for the world's citizens.

In so many ways, delivering development is delivering progress. Some 1.5 billion people worldwide use financial services provided by Posts. This makes us the second largest contributor to financial inclusion in the world, and we continue to help lift people out of poverty. And the UPU delivers development in many other areas: in the fields of health, decent work, education, environment, and peace and justice, to name but a few. Every single day, Posts are working in partnership to improve our world.

On World Post Day, I extend my warmest thanks to all the world's citizens, and to governments, designated operators, the United Nations, civil society and many others who have made their contributions to ensure "One world. One postal network."

As we mark the 145 years of the UPU's existence today, it is worth reflecting on how much our organization has helped humanity. The best way to celebrate the past is to strive for a better future. We have been guided in this work by the need to help humanity overcome its challenges, so that we can secure the future that we all want for our planet. This is the best way to deliver development and progress to the world.

Delivering development

Striving to build the national team of the postal industry

Message from Mr. Liu Aili, Chairman of China Post Group

In the days when the whole nation is celebrating the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we usher in the 50^th World Post Day. On behalf of China Post Group, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the government at all levels, dear customers, and friends from all walks of life for their long-term support. I would also like to extend my greetings to the active and retired postal staff nationwide.

Postal service is a vital public service for a country. It is a leading modern industry that drives the transformation of logistics and facilitates the upgrading of consumption. Since the 18^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China Post has been deepening the study and implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and earnestly implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. We took the political construction of the Party as our guiding principle, the reform and innovation as the driving force, focused on capacity building, shouldered our missions and responsibilities by addressing our inadequacies and putting into effect our strategies, and achieved sustainable and sound development. In 2019, China Post ranked 101^st among the Fortune Global 500, 2^nd among all postal operators, and remained the most profitable postal operator for 5 consecutive years.

This year’s World Post Day is themed “The Post: Delivering development”. China Post will remain true to its original aspiration and founding mission of serving the people, and deliver good to the people through its ubiquitous network. We will reinforce opening up and collaboration to achieve coordinated development and win-win cooperation.

We will further improve the quality and efficiency of our network to build up postal brand image. China Post has 54,000 postal outlets, covering 99.96% of administrative villages nationwide, with the result that basically every township has post offices and every village has access to postal services. With 105,000 postal vehicles for production purpose, 92,000 intelligent parcel lockers and 32 cargo aircraft, we have built a highly efficient express network that integrates land and air transport, covers the whole country and reaches the rest of the world. Our daily processing capacity is over 50 million items, enabling us to provide next day delivery service in major areas and routes. We are now at the leading position in time limits, and our service quality has improved quickly. Faced with the ever-changing market, we will benchmark the industry leaders to integrate delivery resources, optimize our network, and strengthen IT empowerment, and strive to improve the quality and efficiency of the network. By doing so, we aim to continuously improve customer experience and build up our brand image. Where there are human inhabitants, there are postal services. Whether it is on the snowy plateau, in the Gobi Desert, or at the remote outposts, we will take universal postal service as the root of our business, and provide thoughtful and rapid postal services for people in their pursuit of a better life.

We will leverage on our financial services to support the development of real economy. China Post has the resource advantages of all the licensed financial services including the Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC), China Post Life Insurance, China Post Securities and other related companies. As one of the “big six” state-owned commercial banks, PSBC has 40,000 outlets, with a total asset of 11 trillion RMB (1.54 trillion USD), and provides financial services through both offline and online banks. In response to the call of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, PSBC is committed to serving the community, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as agriculture, rural areas and farmers, give full play to our unique advantages in channels and the synergy of our Group as a whole, and gradually build our capacity to better serve the real economy, SMEs and private enterprises.

We will further intensify the sense of responsibility to speed up the development of rural e-commerce. We will resolutely fulfil the political and social responsibilities of an enterprise directly under the central government, facilitate our country to win the "three tough battles" of controlling risks, reducing poverty and tackling pollution, and contribute to the development of Xiong’an New Area and the Belt and Road Initiative. We will fully implement the instruction General Secretary Xi Jinping made when inspecting poverty alleviation projects at a village in Guangshan County of Henan Province by speeding up the development of postal rural e-commerce. We will actively foster the eco-system of rural e-commerce, accelerate the construction of express and logistics distribution systems in rural areas, establishing a two-way channel that facilitates the transport of manufactured products to rural areas and agricultural products to cities, thereby contributing to poverty alleviation.

We will strengthen our endogenous growth momentum by deepening reform and innovation. In recent years, with constant reform and innovation, our transport network shifted from rail-dominated trunk lines to one that involves automobiles, aircraft, drones, and unmanned vehicles. Manual operation was replaced by automated and intelligent handling. China Post has evolved from a traditional postal enterprise to a conglomerate engaging in not only fundamental postal services but modern finance, express and logistics as well as e-commerce. With the rapid development of modern technology and constantly changing market environment, we will take the supply-side structural reform as the main task, focus on improving total factor productivity, further deepen reform and innovation, and inject vitality to our business. We will accelerate our reform to transform from an SOE into a standard corporation, pushing forward PSBC’s A-share listing and the mixed-ownership reform of China Post Life Insurance, China Post Technology Company and other companies by introducing strategic investors. We will give full play to the Internet, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence in providing postal services, promoting innovation in science & technology, development modes, corporate management, and business portfolio.

We will increase our competitiveness by further opening up for cooperation. While providing comprehensive services to domestic customers, we are also seeking for international cooperation with an open mindset and win-win ideology. By attracting foreign investors and us going global, we aim to integrate external and internal resources to build strong partnerships and expand synergy effect. We will intensify collaboration with governments, undertake public service projects, and build a one-stop comprehensive convenience service platform. We will also strengthen strategic partnership with large conglomerates, thus achieving complementarity and win-win cooperation. Based on multilateral frameworks and bilateral agreements, we will work together with other postal operators to expand our international footprint and enhance international competitiveness.

No matter how far we go, we will remain true to our original aspiration. China Post will be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and uphold the overall Party leadership. We will also maintain the new development philosophies, putting quality first and giving priority to performance. We will stick to our main businesses and build them stronger. We will follow industry rules, market principles and the law of value, take the perspectives of customers, competition and the industry, and align ourselves to the standards, thereby pushing ahead with the high-quality development of China Post and building it into the “national team” of the industry, eventually making new and greater contributions to the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and the realization of the Chinese Dream of the great national rejuvenation.