THE East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers has urged the trading bloc to fast track the implementation of the Regional Postal Sector Strategy, an official said over the weekend.

EAC Director of Infrastructure Philip Wambugu told a regional forum in Nairobi that a baseline survey for the regional postal sector has already been concluded.

“A meeting to consider the report of the survey has been scheduled for May 2015,” Wambugu said during the East African Communications Organization Postal Conference on Leveraging Information Communications Technology in the Transformation of the Postal and Courier sector in the region.

Wambugu said that the report of the survey is rich in information on the current state of the sector as well as insights on the way forward.

He said that the strategy would assist EAC partner states to harmonize their policies, laws and regulations for the sector. In the recent years the region has liberalized the sector, which led to a development of a vibrant private sector.

The director said that development of the postal sector cannot take place without the involvement of the private sector. According to the EAC official, electronic commerce presents a great business opportunity for the postal sector.

“This is because physical goods bought online have to be delivered physically to the buyer,” Wambugu said. “However, the challenge is for postal operators to develop strategies for exploiting the opportunities that ecommerce provides,” he said.

Source: Daily News

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