Page 385 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

spite of the endless diversity of human experience and situations, standard
remedies too often have been applied to different social, cultural and economic
situations. Recognizing and preserving diversity is a very important task of the
international community.

As for the relationship between the use of new technologies (including
electronic mail, electronic commerce and electronic tracking of a postal item)
and social progress, this must be seen within the context of globalization with
human face. Unfortunately, it is only a partial and asymmetrical globalization,
when, for example, thousands of villages without electricity cannot part-take in
technological advances, thus producing at present, a very unbalanced "globali-
zation" of communication. Concerning postal services, if we try to identify the
real beneficiaries of the triangle formed by knowledge, operational activities
and communications market, we realize that the present gap is not yet narrow-
ing. We see a dangerous trend towards the growing disparity between the
financial performance and quality of services offered by industrialized countries
and those available in some developing countries.

In responding to the challenges of a rapidly changing environment, the
UPU, it seems to me, is on the right track, by making use of new technologies,
and by promoting significant investment in infrastructure of developing coun-
tries so as to reduce the gap between the operationally rich and operationally
poor.

I trust the Organization with its experience will overcome the difficulties
related to the introduction of new technologies. and I fully associate myself
with the Director-General of the UPU, Thomas Leavey, who recently said in
his opening address to the 22nd UPU Congress in Beijing that if "we are bold
and have the courage and imagination to respond to today by planning for
tomorrow... we can have a bright future as we enter the next millennium".

There is a reason to think so. Looking back, it is necessary to bear in mind
that more than one hundred years ago, when the telegraph and telephone were
invented, some observers predicted the eventual demise of mail, just as
electronic communication appears to threaten the world postal market today.
As you can see all challenges were successfully overcome and now the postal
administrations of the UPU can boast the world's largest physical distribution
network, with more than 700 000 outlets and 6.2 million employees serving
customers throughout the world.

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