World’s postal workers can help bridge digital divide, says UN agency chief

With 660,000 post offices and more than 5 million employees worldwide, the postal sector is a partner of choice in helping to reduce the digital divide, the main goal of the upcoming United Nations information society summit, the head of a UN agency that is the world’s second-oldest international organization said today.

“Today, the post office is so much more than the place you go to send or receive a letter or parcel; it is also a hub for electronic and financial services,” Universal Postal Union (UPU) Director General Edouard Dayan stressed in a message for World Post Day, celebrated annually on 9 October, the day the UPU was founded in 1874.

Thus the postal sector plays an important role in achieving the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to be held in Tunisia next month.

“The Post is present everywhere, even in the remotest corners of many countries, and serves as a key point of access to the outside world. Its doors are open to all, without discrimination, making it a fundamentally universal phenomenon, a force for integration,” Mr. Dayan said, stressing the important role the postal sector plays in the new information society.

The world postal network is pushing back the physical, digital and financial frontiers through the effective use of new technologies, thus helping to build national economies and reducing poverty around the world, he added.

Mr. Dayan, a veteran French postal official, took over the leadership of the Berne-based 190-member UPU in January, declaring his vision of an efficient, innovative, united and open organization, ready to use the tools of the new age.

Each year, 5 million employees process and deliver 424 billion domestic letter-post items, some 6 billion international items and more than 4.4 billion ordinary parcels.