A World Class Service for 21st Century

Abstract

For an overwhelming majority of countries. The postal service is the most basic and most common means of communication. Pakistan is no exception to it. In a world where reliable and speedy communication is essential to the success of rapidly globalizing trade, industry and services, the development of this sector is vital. In many developing countries, the postal service operates with huge inefficiencies and offers a poor quality of services to the public – services that, in addition, have not responded to the needs of the changing market. Consequently, the post has become a significant financial burden on the government In spite of this, the key role of this sector and its significance for economic progress and social development were not acknowledged by governments in the past. As a result, while significant progress in terms of reform has been made in other public service sectors, the postal service is one of the last bastions of the old order of the British colonial past. There is growing competition from the private courier industry and the electronic communications industry. A reform program should be initiated properly if the country is faced with poor quality postal service or if the postal service is unable to generate or raise sufficient funds for its development, or , again, if the sustainability of a low cost universal service is being threatened by growing competition (owing to volume erosion). Governments should take charge of the reform program. Since a comprehensive program includes legal, regulatory and institutional reform components, the management of change has to come from the government, not from the post office. The reform could be implemented full at once, or a phased approach could be used. In either case it is important to implement a full reform program to achieve the maximum benefits.