Statement by the Director General of the UPU International Bureau: “Innovate to recover”
We all owe a debt of gratitude to a small band of individuals whose creativity and innovation is helping the world to escape the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the start of this crisis, there were concerns that a vaccine to combat the virus would take many years to develop. Instead, the unprecedented collaboration of individuals, companies and organizations produced vaccines within a year. Along with nurses and doctors, who risked their lives daily, the scientists and researchers who developed the COVID-19 vaccine are global heroes.
Their triumph in achieving this medical breakthrough has led to fresh hope of preventing infections, and thus containing the spread of the virus: It will lead hopefully to a better future.
The story of how this innovation promoted life-changing solutions is one that global business in general, and the international postal sector in particular, can emulate.
COVID-19 not only halted much of the international postal sector for significant periods, it also undermined business strategies and plans. Against this background, the sector was forced to become creative and develop new ideas and methods to serve customers.
New social and economic postal services have sprung up, creative ways of delivering mail have emerged, and e-commerce has prospered in many parts of the world. In many countries and territories, Posts are also involved in last-mile delivery of the vaccine using complex cold storage methods, offering platforms for booking vaccinations, and even providing space for vaccination centres. These activities are undeniable proof of just how inseparable the Post is from the society and customers it serves.
This agile approach to service and business also offers hope for the future of the postal sector. All too often, we have allowed pessimism to cloud our vision for the postal future, and yet time and again, Posts have proven their capacity to rise to any occasion and continue to offer services with remarkable levels of resilience.
When COVID-19 affected all the countries of the world, including the established supply chain infrastructure, the Post still found a way to continue offering services to communities.
It is this innovativeness of Posts, and their resilience in serving communities, that we are celebrating on the occasion of World Post Day.
The theme of this year’s World Post Day is “Innovate to recover”!
Together, let us learn the lessons arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, and understand that innovation is not an accessory; it is the driving force behind recovery, and what makes this sector crucial to billions of people.
I wish you successful World Post Day celebrations.
Innovate for China Post's Long March of the New Era
Message from Mr. Liu Aili, Chairman of China Post Group
On the occasion of the centennial of the founding of the Communist Party of China, we are embracing the 52nd World Post Day. On behalf of China Post Group, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the governments 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.
As the “national team” of the postal industry, China Post has always been playing a significant role in facilitating the national economic and social development and ensuring people’s rights to communications. Especially in this year, China Post, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, takes its work to the new stage of development, sticks to the new development philosophy, and serves the new pattern of development. Focusing on high-quality development to accelerate its transformation and upgrading, and implementing the three-year action plan for SOE reform to deepen reform and innovation, China Post has maintained a sound and sustainable development, ranking 74th on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list.
During this year, we have fully implemented the requirements for high-quality development, and attached equal importance to the quantity and quality of operations, thereby many development indicators hitting five-year highs. From January to August, the revenue of China Post Group increased by 9.37%; the profit increased by 21.94%, setting a five-year high compared with the same period in previous years. We have been comprehensively enhancing the quality of universal services, thus the public experience of postal service continually improved. To enhance our express and logistics business, we have been improving the time limit, expanding the market, and reducing the costs, thus striving to foster the national team of the express and logistics industry. As for the Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC), we have been pushing forward its transformation towards featured, comprehensive, light, intelligent and centralized services, and accelerating to develop the ecosystem of financial services, thus its business performance surpassing our expectations. For China Post Insurance, we have been adhering to the nature and purpose of insurance business, pressing ahead with the introduction of strategic investors and the implementation of mixed ownership reform, thus enabling a coordinated development of speed, scale, quality and profitability.
During this year, we have fully implemented the major strategic decisions of our country, courageously shouldered our responsibilities as a state-owned enterprise directly under the central government. To consolidate the achievements in poverty alleviation with efforts to promote rural revitalization, we have been focusing on tackling the problems concerning financing, logistics and sales faced by the agricultural cooperatives, family farms and individual farmers, to foster new service modes for the benefits of farmers. We have been quickening our steps in developing the three-tiered logistics system at village, township and county levels, and promoting the project of transporting mail items by buses and the cooperation between postal enterprises and express companies, thereby shoring up logistics of the rural areas and facilitating rural revitalization. We have been pushing forward the projects of green packaging, green transportation and green finance, thus building green post services. We have been strengthening risk prevention and control, thus no major financial risk cases and work safety accidents occurred.
During this year, we have comprehensively implemented the three-year action plan for SOE reform, and promoted reform by eliminating inefficiencies and fostering best practices, thereby the endogenous power of China Post had been significantly enhanced. We have completed 30 billion yuan (about 4.656 billion US dollars) in a private placement of PSBC, and improved its capital adequacy ratio and its capability to guard against risks. PSBC has become one of the designated R&D institutions of digital RMB, establishing its first-mover advantage in the new round of electronic payment competition. It has been approved to establish a direct bank subsidiary — the first direct bank owned by a state-owned commercial bank. China Post Insurance has successfully introduced 12.03 billion yuan (about 1.867 billion US dollars) strategic investment, the biggest capital increase project in China’s insurance industry. To fully implement the three-year action plan for SOE reform, we have put in place sound mechanisms of corporate governance and market-oriented operations, and carried out pilots of fixed-term appointment and contract management. We have extended reforms of centralized management, land transport network, trunk line transportation, mail centers, and collection and delivery network in respect to express and logistics business, and further enhanced its core competitiveness.
During this year, we have comprehensively implemented the strategy of innovation-driven development, and consolidated our fundamental capabilities, thus the competitive strengths of China Post continually boosted. We have constantly improved the databases of the time limit, market, costs and service of express and logistics business, providing data and technical support for its accelerated development. We have continued to push forward the transformation towards digital intelligence, and reinforce IT empowerment, thus achieving remarkable results in data application. PSBC’s new core system platform, the first enterprise-level core platform built with enterprise modeling methods and distributed architecture among major state-owned banks in China, has been put into operation.
The year 2021 is the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan. The theme of the World Post Day this year is “INNOVATE TO RECOVER”. Innovation is the primary driving force for development, and innovation leads to high-quality development and better future, as President Xi Jinping pointed out. We will resolutely place innovation at the core of China Post’s overall reform and development, seeking gaps and shoring up weaknesses from the perspectives of the customers’, the competitors’ and the best of industry’s. We will strive to press ahead with the high-quality development of China Post by reform and innovation in accordance with the laws of industry, market and value.
We will consistently push forward innovations in our development patterns. We will fully implement the new development philosophy, prioritize quality and profitability, promote reforms in quality, productivity and driving forces. We will innovate our traditional postal services, extend the transformations of PSBC, and facilitate China Post Insurance to achieve value growth. We will also comprehensively improve the quality and performance of our express and logistics business, and actively explore the new model of rural ecommerce, enabling China Post to accomplish a development of higher quality, higher efficiency and more sustainability.
We will consistently push forward institutional innovations. We will conscientiously carry out the three-year action plan for SOE reform, work quickly towards modern corporate system, establish sound market-oriented operating mechanisms, constantly promote the fixed-term appointment and contract management of the leaders, and build a system weighing up position, rank, compensation and performance. We will steadily carry out separate accounting and separate operations of universal services from competitive businesses, continue to deepen reforms of express and logistics business, and strive to foster new competitive edges.
We will consistently push forward sci-tech innovation. Centering on the development of such middle office systems as business, data, and technology, we will accelerate the development of "Digital Post" to realize agile customer service, digital empowerment of employees, and intelligent production and operations. We will formulate incentive mechanisms for sci-tech innovation, accelerate the research, development and application of new technologies, and improve the management level of intelligent operations.
We will consistently push forward service innovation. Making universal services and public services equally accessible is an important responsibility and primary task of China Post in implementing the instruction of President Xi Jinping on achieving common prosperity. Adhering to the principle of “more efforts by China Post, less trouble for customers”, we will go all out to foster a comprehensive convenience service platform integrating universal services, rural ecommerce, express and logistics as well as financial services by business overlays and agent services. We will accelerate the development of the three-tiered logistics system at village, township and county levels, fully facilitate the rural revitalization strategy and support the new development pattern in which domestic and foreign markets boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.
There is no end to develop and it is a must to flow with the tide of the new era. China Post will take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the fundamental guideline, study and implement Xi Jinping’s speech at the ceremony marking the centennial of the founding of the CPC, deepen reform and innovation, and speed up transformation and development, thereby resolutely progressing along China Post’s Long March of the new era, and making new and greater contributions to building a modern socialist country in all respects and fulfilling the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.