Malawi for harmonised postal union amendments
Malawi has called for harmonisation of Pan African Postal Union (Papu) constitutional amendments to ensure that the 46 member States deliver universal postal services in line with the changes in the global economic landscape.
Ministry of Information and Communications Technology Principal Secretary Erica Maganga said Malawi, as a member State, supports the amendments of the union which strive to ensure that citizens in respective countries are served better in the postal sector.
She was speaking on Wednesday in Antananarivo, Madagascar in an interview after Madagascar President Hery Rajaonarimampianina opened Papu’s Fifth Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Conference.
Said Maganga: “Technology is changing and we are affected in the way we deliver postal services if we stick to old ways of doing things.
“Malawi supports Papu proposals to reform the Act so that we are relevant to the current technological era and able to deliver postal services better especially to people in rural areas who depend on postal services much.”
In his opening remarks, Rajaonarimampianina urged Papu members to harmonise the recommendations and take one position for African countries.
He said delivery of postal services cannot be effective if the Act amendments continue being obsolete.
Papu secretary general Youuness Djibrine said since the establishment of Papu on January 18 1980, its Acts have only been amended once in 1988.
He said amendments made in 2009 are yet to come into force due to failure to meet the 51 percent quorum of member States present and voting that is required to ratify them.
Some of the proposals are to increase the number of administrative council members from 20 to 25 prorata to the geographical distribution applied by the African Union (AU) and also to transfer Article 25(n) of the AU’s Consultative Act in its current wording into the Acts of Papu.
