All Member-countries of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), both the industrialized and developing countries, with good reason, hope to see a marked improvement in the universal postal network. This development aspiration has found expression in the Quality of Service Fund (QSF) set up by the UPU in the interest of all posts. The QSF will be resourced by a 7.5- percent surcharge on terminal dues paid by industrialized countries. The QSF will be used exclusively to finance projects for the improvement of quality of service in developing countries.

The funds covers the following areas:

• access to service;
• speed;
• security;
• liability and processing of claims;
• customer satisfaction;
• design and implementation of cost
• control and pricing systems.

Good projects approved by the Board of Trustees, which is the body in charge of QSF, are eligible for funding.

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| NEW PRODUCTS |

• Cyber-post
  
• Cyber-Kiosque
  
• Hybrid-mail
  
• Electronic mail
  
• Electronic Counter
  
• Electronic money order
  
• E-learning (via internet)
  
• Electronic Date Interchange (EDI)
  
• International Financial System (IFS)
  
• Direct Mail Advertising
  
• E-commerce

• INTRODUCING OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION IN POSTAL SERVICES

Once the bane of postal services, as it was Responsible for close to 50% drop in the volume of transactions, in the 1990s, technology is today the key to postal progress in an economy that no longer has any frontiers. It offers such advantages as: faster and safer collection, conveyance, handling and distribution of mail value added services to clients; better accounting and financial planning and management; more reliable and effective postal statistics and creation of websites and data banks; reduction of processing and handling costs; better processing and follow-up of customer inquiries and claims; and greater satisfaction of customer needs.

Types of technological innovations

The choice of technologies that can be introduced in postal services is very wide. Possible innovations include the internet, cell phones, digital TV, electronic and digital meters, electronic screening machines, electronic weighing machines, electronic franking machines, etc.

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THE INTERNET

The internet has a vast potential in all areas and sectors of the postal industry that postal services can tap into. Possible uses by postal services include : provision of internet services in post offices. The availability of the internet in post offices automatically facilitates the introduction of track-and-trace systems.

E-Business

Technology has brought down the boundaries and barriers between business and geography and blurred the distinctions between horizontal and vertical markets, bringing sellers and consumers closer than ever. This offers enormous advantages to both parties. Thanks to e-business, we are increasingly witnessing mergers of the two types of markets.

Postal services, too, ought to either acquire both the skills and equipment needed for e-business and the running of internet networks, of form mutually beneficial alliances and partnerships with cyber-logistics service providers of proven worth, in such areas as mail handling and sorting.

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