The 25th Universal Postal Congress officially opened in Doha, Qatar, marked the beginning of the three-week meeting which gathers postal leaders and stakeholders from the Universal Postal Union’s 192 member countries to decide on the global postal sector’s future every four years.
A number of crises have characterized the last four years, bringing new, unprecedented challenges for the postal sector and the UPU, said Edouard Dayan, director general of the Universal Postal Union, during the opening plenary session. "These new realities have known no borders and have extended to all postal operators worldwide, regardless of their level of development. The Congress must champion the values of our organization: universality, solidarity and communication among peoples," Dayan said. "This Congress embraces the values of the postal community, but also heralds the future, that of a modernized, efficient and solid organization, and of global postal services at the heart of the economy, trade and the information society," he added.
Held under the theme "New world, new strategy", the 25th Universal Postal Congress hopes to adopt the Doha Postal Strategy, the UPU’s strategic document for the future. It underlines the postal network’s three dimensions – physical, electronic and financial – as well as interconnection, governance and development as key axes to strengthen postal services worldwide.
Over the next three weeks, more than 2,200 registered delegates will examine many proposals to modify the rules and regulations governing the exchange of international mail as well as major documents recommending the way forward in areas such as postal financial services, quality of service, postal security, e-commerce and trade facilitation.
During the opening plenary, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recognized the role of the global postal network in social and economic development in a message to Congress. "Postal services are universal. They connect people throughout the world," he said. The UPU is a specialized agency of the United Nations for postal services.
Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Aqaily, chairman of the General Postal Corporation of Qatar, was also officially designated as Congress chairman during the opening plenary.
Earlier His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Heir Apparent, attended the morning’s opening ceremony organized by the State of Qatar, alongside Qatar’s minister of culture, arts and heritage, Dr Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Bin Ali Al Kuwari, the UPU’s Edouard Dayan, and Saudi Arabia’s minister of telecommunications and information technology, Mohammed Jamil Bin Ahmed Mulla, and other dignitaries.
As host of the Congress, Qatar will also automatically assume the chairmanship of the UPU’s Council of Administration for 2013-2016. Countries will be elected to the UPU’s official bodies, the Council of Administration and the Council of Postal Operations, on 10 October, following the election of a new director general and deputy director general for the UPU whose mandate will run for four years starting in January 2013.