On October 5, the President of Uzbekistan held a meeting on reforming Uzbekistan Post, the presidential press service said in a statement.

There are reportedly more than 2 thousand branches of Uzbekistan Post throughout the country with over 7 thousand employees. However, due to the lack of proper attention to the company, the popularity of national postal company has declined.

In particular, over the past five years, 1.3 thousand branches have been closed. Last year, the company handled only 10 percent of the 6,000 tons of parcels sent from abroad and 30 percent of courier services.

“In this regard, the situation on the ground has been studied and proposals to reform the company have been developed with the aid of experts from the Asian Development Bank. The President unveiled plans for the implementation of these proposals on the example of the post offices of Sergeli, Yangikurgan and Tashkent districts,” the statement said.

The head of state stressed that for the development of the postal system, it is necessary to make it profitable. He pointed out the possibility of increasing income of post offices by establishing partnerships with private operators and introducing additional services.

For example, e-commerce is actively developing today. Services for the delivery of goods purchased via the Internet are in demand. In addition, international shipping companies operating in our country do not have branches in provinces. If we use these opportunities effectively, arrange the delivery of postal items and products to the recipient, this will give a result, he added.

He also instructed to launch a national e-trading platform by the end of the year, where products can be placed, and the company will take care of delivering to addressees. At the same time, Uzbekistan Post will act as a guarantor in the transaction between the buyer and the seller. To this end, it is necessary to create a logistics center in Tashkent next year, he noted.

Another source of income for the sector could be the provision of basic government services in post offices. In this regard, the task was set to organize the provision of 13 types of public services in 300 branches of Uzbekistan Post in remote areas. He instructed to introduce such banking services as cash collection, operations with bank cards in the post offices of Sergeli, Yangikurgan and Tashkent districts, the press service said.

Over the past four years, the volume of distribution of newspapers by the company has fallen by 3 times, its share in the total volume of their delivery is only at 13 percent.