SPEECH BY THE HON. CENSU GALEA, MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT & COMMUNICATIONS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE 24TH CERP PLENARY MEETING – MALTA 2001

Mr Chairman,
Distinguished delegates and observers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to join you at the opening session of the CERP Plenary Meeting here in Malta. On behalf of the Government of Malta and my Ministry I would like to extend to you all my warmest welcome and hope that the logistic arrangements extended to all participants will facilitate the smooth running of this conference, and enable you to enjoy your stay on our island.

When I attended the 22^nd Universal Postal Congress in Beijing China in September 1999 I could witness at first hand how postal administrations world wide are experiencing an operational environment which is undergoing profound changes. The globalisation of economies has triggered more movement of goods and services effecting the postal business on an international scale. Competition for postal services is the order of the day with private operators devising customised services available to the general public. Emerging electronic technologies like the internet are offering alternative means to physical mail delivery. Customers are becoming more specific and exacting in their demands. Hence the importance of devoting more attention and resources to developing the postal services into a firm high quality and commercially viable communications medium.

What can be said about postal administrations worldwide is even more applicable to the European region, here represented by CERP. A cursory glance at the agenda of this meeting is enough evidence of the profound changes that are being made or that need to be made by postal administrations throughout Europe to keep abreast of the continuous evolution of their operational environment. The re-organisation of CERP and its relation with CEPT and the various regulatory issues facing this sector are the main topics that have been actively discussed by the various working groups that will be reporting to this conference. Other topics under discussion are the question of standardisation and the relations of CERP with the European Union, with the Universal Postal Union and with the World Trade Organisation. It is evident that this sector has to come to terms with the ever-growing acquisition of the market by private operators to the detriment of universal service providers. The real quandary that has to be answered is how to provide adequate protection for the universal service providers before the onset of total liberalisation. The question of striking the right balance is entrenched in the new postal directive currently being considered by the European Union. It is precisely aiming at ensuring gradual liberalisation of the market allowing private operators and courier services, but at the same time securing the future of Universal Service Providers.

My Government is closely monitoring these developments especially conscious of our position as a candidate country for accession to the European Union. The challenges posed by competition, privatisation and liberalisation may sometimes appear threatening at first hand but on closer examination one can find that new horizons are opening up. Aware of this scenario my Government is about to introduce a new Postal Services Act which aims at providing a regulatory framework under the responsibility of the recently established Malta Communications Authority in order to secure the future of postal services in our country. We are very proud of our postal services with a history as an organised service which dates back to the times of the Knights of St John who introduced a courier service connecting Malta with Sicily and the rest of Italy in 1571. The first Malta stamp was introduced in 1860 when Malta was under British rule, and Malta became a member of the Universal Postal Union in 1875. In 1995 the operational side of the postal services were separated from its regulatory function by the setting up of Posta Ltd which is now known as Maltapost plc, an incorporated public company.

As a small European island state in the heart of the Mediterranean sea, at the cross-roads between Europe and Africa and the centre of major economic regions of global significance, Malta wants to be pro-active in order to herald a new era of market opening which will enhance our future economic development. Developments in Malta during the last decade or so, qualify this period to be described as the "communications decade" because we have engaged in a significant infrastructural investment programme which has enabled Malta to be one of the first countries to have a fully digital fixed line telephone system, and a very high penetration of various services such as mobile telephony, the internet, cable television, and data transmission.

The Maltese postal services are similarly undergoing thorough reforms and development. Maltapost plc has devised a new corporate strategy designed to revitalise the company's operations and exploit its commercial potential in order to emerge as a dynamic financially viable enterprise providing corporate and individual customers with a comprehensive range of high quality products and services. Maltapost plc is undertaking a refurbishment programme of all post office outlets which are being designed as one-stop shops that sell a full range of postal services, stationery items, greeting cards and post cards. An ever-increasing number of bill collection and payment facilities will soon be made available to the public. At the recently opened Mellieha Branch, Internet Caf'? facilities have been introduced and it is envisaged that the service will be extended to other areas if successful.

The EMS division has lately introduced a customs clearance service for its clientele in order to minimise lead times between receipt and release of EMS parcels. The next target is to deliver all goods to the addressee at the business locality or at home, and at the same time collect items for forwarding to both the local market and abroad. At the same time, Maltapost plc has embarked on an information technology development programme which started with the computerisation of the Head Office Administration Block and is now being extended to all Post Office Counters. Other recently introduced measures include the installation of UNEX-lite, an end-to-end Quality Measurement System.

As a postal administation in an accession candidate country, Maltapost plc has been able to participate in the CAPERS (Computer Aided Post of Eastern States) Project which is being funded by the European Union under its Information Society Technology (ITS) programme, while other funds are being provided by PostEurop. The main objectives of CAPERS is to transfer and deploy established best practices, and supporting technologies so that pre-accession countries can reach the standards of postal service provisions expected by European users and required by the Communitry Postal Directive, and simultaneously drive up the number of users.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Grateful as we are for the benefits that we can reap from participating in such projects, but also aware of our responsibilities, my Government has offered to host this plenary session of CERP in Malta. I am also aware that you will be listening to various speakers in the coming two days of this conference,and will no doubt participate actively in the various discussions. Therefore, I must not take too much of your precious time. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those involved at CERP, especially Mr Jean-Luc Dutordoit, at the Ministry for Transport and Communications, and at Maltapost plc for organising this meeting. I would also like to thank the Chairman and the board of Maltapost plc for accepting to participate in the funding of this event.

Concluding, I wish you all, two days of constructive discussion and fruitful conclusions which will hopefully enable you to leave Malta with a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the regulation and operation of postal services in Europe. Hopefully the Malta Meeting will long be remembered as a landmark in the development of Postal services on our continent.