digital economy could be to offer a suite of financial services as we heard on our last panel as many posts already do so you can see that the possibilities are certainly out there so many in fact that the transition to digital to the digital realm presents as many opportunities as challenges it's true that digital services have not yet proven to be especially profitable but as more people perform more of their daily tasks online posts cannot afford to not meet the digital needs of customers along with their physical needs or the cost will be instant irrelevance talk about unprofitable so in closing I want to say that the likely winners in the digital economy will be the ones who understand the very definition of trust what's essentially is to have confidence in someone or something who they are and what they do good character and demonstrated competence these form the very DNA of trust so as we go forward in this transition in addition to finding the best ways to transfer trust into the digital economy we should also be asking do we have the necessary level of competence to successfully execute if we don't how do we get it and how can we get it quickly I believe the key to meeting these challenges of trust lies not just in great ideas but more importantly in maximizing a workforce that comes to the job every day with strong character, good judgment and the ability and desire to effectively use technology to serve the citizens of this world in their ever increasing expectations, thank you very much so last speaker now comes from Ecuador his name is Roberto Cavana Marchand he's the secretary general from postal union of the Americas Spain and Portugal he draws upon decades of extensive international and national experience with the postal sector he was a general manager responsible for the modernization of the Ecuadorian mail at Correos del Ecuador and also the executive chairman at the same Correos del Ecuador please sir, thank you very much thank you very much to UPU for having invited me to take part in this panel I'd like to thank all of the previous panelists and I'd like to thank all of you for your patience and listening to me over the next few minutes I think it's important to look at the context before and after now what does this say what do these photos tell us this I think represents what the postal sector used to look like a few years ago it was just coasting down a very smooth river probably some were doing better than others going faster than others but basically there weren't many waves now look at the situation today it's the complete opposite it was everywhere we're in a very difficult context there are very aggressive telecommunications companies and competitors there are higher higher expectations from consumers there is also unfair competition and a complete deregulation of the sector so we have to do a lot more with a lot less what is the current context there is no money to invest we have a number of problems because we need to be innovative I think we've been talking about this over the last two days we need to be innovative we need to meet targets we have monthly targets we heard about someone who didn't meet their targets in November I think the fact is month after month we are being asked to sell and do business so what are we doing we said any right implies duty and responsibility and any opportunity implies obligation and any possession duty now what this means is in my view is that clients are entitled to expect a very high quality of service and we have the responsibility to deliver that service we also have the responsibility to innovate and to change the situation in the postal sector we are forced to find new solutions and look for better commitment and skill in order to provide a better service we have important tools such as postal reform e-commerce financial services and a whole set of tools at our disposal in the postal sector but how are we going about postal sector reform here it is well we need to look very carefully at the context and say that we are not just looking for new laws and new regulations we are looking for a reform of the postal sector and that means a comprehensive and structured reform in which governments participate actively in the reform process whereby postal reform is a question of ownership among all of the stakeholders in the postal sector if we try and do everything by ourselves we are not going to get anywhere obviously the postal sector is a key element a key driver of social and economic development in countries the statistics show that we are the biggest job creator in the world with 5.1 million jobs we generate wealth 1 billion US dollars and we have more than 660,000 post offices around the world we have been talking about e-commerce over the past couple of days and obviously we need to increase the volume of parcel post we need to work on parcels in order to take advantage of e-commerce because we are seeing fewer and fewer letters and this has been said on number of occasions we don't know when letters are going to disappear altogether in one year, 50 years so what we need to focus on is quality of service in all of the service that we provide including letter mail but when our letters are going to disappear we simply don't know what I say when someone asks me I might look like a fortune teller or a witch of some kind, but I'm not I simply don't know I can't look into the future I can't read the tea leaves when letters are going to disappear but we need to focus on our key strengths, logistics, parcels we've talked so much about e-commerce about Brazil and Peru where e-commerce has been discussed lengthily we've got to export a facile for example we've talked about the importance of e-commerce about how it promotes social inclusion an inclusive government program that we need to take advantage of Deepak Chopra our dear friend talked about cross-border post and he talked about the need to have excellent, strong cross-border post and in order to achieve that we need to have technology, good accessibility and we need a sustainable service we've got to financial services we've heard a great deal about that but what's important for us are remittances for migrants, we heard about that in the previous panel postal bank there are posts that already have the services such as Brazil, France and Italy and Portugal in November I believe we'll be setting one up and we can learn from them we shouldn't be afraid to learn from the successes and from the failures of countries who have set up this type of service but we need to look at this frankly and talk about the capacity of mail, of posts to get involved in this type of business activity talking about postal payment services it's very important to look at the fact that there are traditional services but we can also be very innovative postal packaging envelopes were launched by one post in the region and this made it possible to put advertising on all of these envelopes and these envelopes were just distributed to people who didn't have an envelope available when they wanted to send something and this is free and this is advertising and we shouldn't be afraid of these type of innovative strategies as well as looking at working with airlines and public transport cooperatives technology is moving very fast and we need to keep up with it we need to be at the cutting edge we've talked about changing our image a great deal in the region and we've worked very hard to try to change the image of posts as cheaply as possible by getting involved in interviews free publicity wherever possible, press releases and looking for advertising possibilities and postal parcels for the future what we need is good governance of the sector we need to enhance the quality of service in all of our products and diversify we need to incorporate new technologies we need to work with all of the restricted unions and regions as key elements of postal development what are we doing in PUASP well what we have done is try to support governments in reform processes they are key processes for us we cannot work in silos we need to work hand in hand with governments we've also launched a program called the CEMENT, EMS CEMENT project in order to enhance quality of service in EMS and we've reviewed progress after a year of implementing that project and we've seen that some posts have made great strides forward thanks to this program in the last year we've been raising awareness of governments of the importance of the postal sector trying to explain our role and try to explain how we can support them we've been working on regional projects such as developing the logistics chain working on a regional postal security certificate looking at relations between posts and customs for me there is no successful post without security we've been working along the lines of this exporter facile program which is a very inclusive program and such a vital one for the region and indeed for the world and we've been looking at the issue of remittances and we're looking for new sources of financing so that we can promote our projects to conclude I think we need to do post business in a very flexible and forward looking fashion we're not just in the business of selling products we're in the business of developing the postal sector and we have tremendous synergies when mail is sent from a developed country to a developing country and that developing country doesn't have the technology or the capacity to deliver that mail then the quality of the post in general will be described as poor so we have no time to lose there is no time to waste the time for change is now and it depends on all of us it depends on the decisions that we take at this conference and in the Istanbul Congress therefore I invite you to lead together a crusade for this new postal sector with new services innovation and extremely high quality thank you very much for your attention thank you very much that was brilliant, thank you so I think before before I ask anything I think I'll go to the floor this time and if I recall correctly the Burkina Faso wanted to intervene earlier but didn't have the opportunity is Burkina Faso in the room do they wish to speak now no no Burkina Faso ah any question from the floor anyone wishing to add anything the Dominican Republic please sir Mr Kavana Marcan we'd like to know what is the main challenge that you faced as Secretary General of the Postal Union of these Americas, Spain and Portugal what is the biggest challenge that you've had to face in developing the postal networks in Latin America yes please, I'm sorry I think I was addressed to you, yes sir thank you very much for your question well one of the challenges that we've had to face as Secretary General is trying to work more closely with governments and trying to get governments to work with posts to try to move forward in each of the projects that we need to implement to try to make the posts more dynamic in relation to new technologies in particular sometimes we've had projects that we wanted to implement before they were actually mature such as projects relating to e-commerce and so what's important to begin with is to start to implement them but if you don't have the right technological platform for some of these services the whole thing is going to collapse so that's why you need to work a lot upstream and to ensure that your projects are successful when they are eventually launched and this was a difficult thing because the government's in the region not always aware of the role of the postal sector but we've been working more closely with them last question I give the floor to Kurt you have one minute for the question and statement as you are presenting this conference but I ask you to be very brief one minute to ask a question and one minute to respond thank you very much thank you very much moderator we will be brief as you've requested all the speakers for the excellent quality of their presentations particularly the gentleman who asked I noted in all the presentations that this significant list of innovations and solutions that we should all be looking at but I think also we need to think about the issue of client expectations we have customers and governments all the players in the ecosystem we know that innovation is evident for the market and we need to do this and we need to respect our promises to the customer and we should improve the quality of our services with all our stakeholders and respect what we have promised to our clients thank you very much for your comment says the moderator I think it's an excellent comment thank you for taking the floor thank you very much for participating in this panel unfortunately the time is really really really running fast and we have another panel and some guys I think catch a plane so thank you very much for your time and for your expertise and have a safe return home thank you one more thing before we go on just a quick question this is a technical problem we have we're missing a microphone so I think Ambassador Lacy left with his microphone so if anyone sees Ambassador Lacy or anyone sees a microphone you know just wondering around it's surely missed and we appreciate to have it back so thank you so we'll ask the next four panelists to please step on stage namely Monsieur le Ministre Connais Mr Jennings Mr Cleaver-Killer and Mr Guzman as well please step on stage so that we can fix your microphone and then we can start right away thank you Jennings I'll talk for calls keep it under 10 minutes oh yeah yeah that'd be perfect I will try thank you never be heard that a union guy speaks yes you are yes you are I made an announcement okay so I'll wait for him for him to come in I'll wait for him okay you give me the go okay I'll wait for you yes Mrs Mohammed do you hear me yes we do hello there well good so you're with us so we can start then good we'll formally start then so our third panel last one and we're going to be talking about an essential component for the global economy and sustainable development contribution of the sector of the sector the internal region global economy is more recognized by governments and international actors as well as international current concepts of globalization the universal postal network, resilient network is a major benefit for an important tool to support the objectives of sustainable development on a national level, a global level of three dimensions the economy, social aspect and the environment the various speakers in this panel will review how the UPU members and the postal sector in a broader sense in the United States and all citizens worldwide speaker and one of the speaker we have as you heard and witnessed is live with us but from New York Mrs Amina Mohammed she's the UN Secretary General Special Advisor on post 2015 development planning she was previously Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the Millennium Development Goals after serving three presidents over a period of six years in 2005 she was charged with the coordination of the debt relief funds of one billion per annum towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria Mrs Mohammed served as a coordinator also of the Task Force on Gender and Education for the United Nations Millennium Project so now Mrs Mohammed I'm not going to say the floor is yours as you're quite away from us but the microphone is yours and we are all ears to listen to you Thank you very much and my appreciation for being invited to participate in this really interesting discussion with the UPU and our fellow panelists so good morning from New York we are of course 15 years down the road from when we had the first opportunity of using the MDGs as the first set of goals to really try to bring together an anti-poverty push over 15 years here on in we have mixed results the glass is half full, half empty I certainly spent a great deal of my life at the country level trying to address the MDGs so we will regard them today as unfinished business but successful in that we are debating the new framework for another set of goals this time for sustainable development and two and a half years ago Member States did make another difference in the way in which we at the United Nations approached shaping the new agenda and that was by taking the lead that 193 of our Member States would fashion and shape out what would be the successor we've witnessed over the last year and a half Member States in two processes one around the next set of sustainable development goals produce a set of 17 goals and 169 targets in really the most inclusive discussion that we've had from governments to external stakeholders in business, civil society our academics and I think really an agenda today that shows is owned is responsive and representative of the many challenges that we all face but better still what we've done is add another conversation to this and that is how would we produce means of implementation for this what would we agree that the second process which is the financing for development is also in play in fact as we speak now we have our Member States negotiating the first zero draft of that part of the process to see how they would engage with making sure that at the end of this agenda we have the means of implementation it's I think critical to underscore here that many of the challenges the existing agenda still remain however they are exacerbated by new situations and in particular the issues of unemployment of migration of conflict and all of these are really reflected in how these goals ought to address it but it is a new narrative it is a new way of us addressing development of the country that is not incremental that is universal and about everyone but it is also about an integrated approach we are not taking the agenda of a Minister of Development to the Cabinet table but we are saying that the transformation of economies in fact the results we are looking for are in the social agenda and on the environmental agenda an integrated whole environmental, economic and social so this really does bring in many more stakeholders it brings in the challenges of how we will look at ourselves as institutions as individuals as experts in trying to make ourselves fit for purpose on this agenda we see here that in many cases finishing off the social agenda and human well-being cannot be done without us taking an integral look at how the economy itself will be geared towards addressing this and that when we do that when we grow our economies that we are looking at the environment and some of the technologies that we need to make sure that we do less harm and that we really do deal with a new way of the demands that we make in terms of our consumption and production we are in fact looking for a more sustainable path we are also looking for investments in sustainable development that are irreversible and I think that we have learned from the MDGs that anything that we do incrementally that addresses only part of the problem really does come back and perhaps one of the most vivid responses to this has been the challenges that we dealt with for instance on the health agenda with Ebola in Africa we are really addressing just health issues around child mortality and maternal mortality did not go deep enough into looking at the systems that we need to respond to health as a whole from the local level all the way through to tertiary care and I think this agenda really does try to make sure that in all its ways the narrative certainly has changed where are we today this year we will address these three issues the set of goals that we hope we will have approved by the member states the means of implementation but also make a very strong attempt to get a meaningful agreement on the climate change in December in Paris and I think it is important that these three issues that we speak addressing a more sustainable path to development the means of implementation in unlocking resources and that means really looking innovatively at what else can we do to bring from billions to the trillions that we will need all hands and deck for this and how do we get an agreement on climate change where from the country level we are making commitments to greening and having a much more sustainable path so this is a year of really big big actions that we want to take and we want to approve how then do we look at a key stakeholder like the postal sector in this the relevance and the implementation of your role as you look at your strategy certainly here we know that it is key that we look at the means of implementation for this we see that with more than 1 billion people who have accounts in the post office it is the second largest contribution to financial inclusion and this is an important part of this agenda is that the inequality aspect of this making sure that we include everyone regardless of where they are coming from or who they are needs to learn lessons from those that have been involved with this but for which we have the greater challenge of going to scale the universal agenda meaning just that the nature of the multi-stakeholders involved and of the experiences that you have had within countries across countries globally in bringing together excluded groups and populations particularly young people and women will play a big role in the means of implementation and therefore what happens come January is at the country level how do we bring together our constituencies within the UN system new stakeholders to implement this big agenda we will be looking at how we access information, again you have been one of the vehicles that has cut across all those barriers in providing that but how can you become a much more integral part and substantively that information that we are carrying reinforcing the agents of change and those decision makers that will be found in different parts of government, of parliament of our communities in reducing the cost of access to many of these facilities there has been much discussion on this and the current financing for development and in particular when we have spoken about remittances and the value that that will bring both in a global context and how to do that and where we would find the most advantage coming from in terms of the possibilities solutions we need I think we know the what, the how and the how as it represents different regions in the world who have a different level of being able to address this different sets of priorities different regulations and policy frameworks that need to come together to make this happen so it is quite clear that inclusion is going to be a big part of this new agenda financial inclusion, social and economic inclusion and I believe that the UPU will be in a good place as you think through being fit for purpose for this, how will you engage with the UN system that we become the facilitators of ensuring that this new agenda is an integral part of what countries visions and plans will integrate how can we then lend from your toolkit, improve it, deepen it broaden it, make it usable and accessible for many more new players that will come into this it is really exciting moment right now I think there are many who are thinking we do have a big sense of what's coming down the road the 17 goals that we have will be the ingredients that we use for this new agenda we have yet to finish really fashioning out the means of implementation which as I heard in the session before the digital divide really being closed but the role of technologies in all of this as a means of implementation bringing that to the fore and using that much more effectively to bring these different stakeholders together it's a clearly exciting because it is the first time that we can in this generation end poverty it's also the first time that we can really come together to see that we have a meaningful agreement on climate change and we bridge the conversation the sustainable development is the overarching narrative that we need to achieve both the eradication of poverty and certainly the climate change deal that we need going forward UPU does have a big role to play here I think in the strategy of what you've learned so far in addressing the MDGs but in a much bigger and more integrated agenda bringing the role of your your partners in this to participate in this discussion and I hope to continue to engage all the way through to the end of this year when we should have three very important outcomes for the next 15 years thank you well thank you well thank you Ms. Mohamed for this presentation I'll ask you a quick question now because I think you have other meetings to attend according to you in what ways do you think that UPU could engage or can engage in the post 2015 Dil Lopman agenda I think they already have been we have seen quite an incredible engagement both at the level of the United Nations in the different negotiating processes that we've had here but also internally within the technical support team that has brought on expertise to inform much of the how I think going forward is to continue to bridge what is happening here in New York with what is happening at the country level we're not quite there yet in understanding what it is that is going to come through the door come post come January 2016 so I think it would be essential for you to engage again with the stakeholders at the country level and discuss the implications of this agenda going forward I think it's really important that we get a conversation going at the country level really noting the different levels that we are all at not everyone has got the same situation not everyone has access to the same level of expertise institutions and certainly players and so to come bring that multi stakeholder grouping together and using the platforms of the UN that this has already begun with bringing together as I said business bringing together different stakeholders in civil society as we see what would be an implementation plan what would it look like to underscore the importance of the transition this is a really big agenda it will require a lot of capacity building a lot of facilitation and tools to address an integrated approach to this so we do see that over the next two to five years a real deepening of this but to start as we would say yesterday what are the implications of this new agenda can you begin to speak with your partners broadening that base this is where we really need to make the connection so we don't repeat the mistakes of bringing a prescription from New York but rather that this is a part of what we have engaged in and we can hit the ground running well thank you very much for this precision have a great day in New York I think you won't be able to stay with us thank you very much we will continue this discussion well we are now going to continue this discussion with information communication technologies of Côte d'Ivoire Mr Bruno Cabani Coney who has a wealth of experience in the area of posts and telecommunications because before becoming minister he was the regulatory affairs director of the Africa Middle East and Asia region for France telecom telecommunications sector the audit and finance delegate director of France telecom and the director general of the telecom sector and communications in Côte d'Ivoire and he is also the president of this conference thank you well hello again everybody sustainable development has become a vital part of business for the postal sector and something we have been hearing since this morning it is something that has helped us to improve relations with partners create new markets respond to clients expectations better develop our activities more effectively and ensure that our employees are more fulfilled raise awareness of environmental and social issues among the public sustainable development is also seen as an economic lever for the development of our posts since the Doha congress in 2012 a number of activities have been launched in the foreign areas the environment the UPU's activities such as exchange of good practices with regard to reducing greenhouse emissions in the postal sector efforts to achieve climate neutrality in the international view of the UPU strengthened in cooperation with the United Nations agencies including the United Nations environmental program and the international civilisation authority need to be strengthened the second issue connected with social affairs now we need to continue with awareness raising activities with regard to infection of HIV AIDS and now Ebola of course we need to extend those procedures to non-communicable diseases and we also need to continue implementing the action plan that was drawn up by the international labour organisation in collaboration with the UPU on employment and decent work we also need to ensure that our posts are responsible in promoting a social dialogue and enabling their employees and enabling their even more numerous clients to achieve a better standard of health and that's something that all socially responsible enterprises need to be involved with and I think that posts need to be socially responsible the issue I would like to focus on in particular is the third pillar if you like the economy and there I think this must be the forefront of posts agendas posts need to become effective businesses we need to be viable we need to ensure that our activities are profitable and we need to promote the economic development of our countries and create jobs with regard to the environment of course we need to have responsible purchasing policy, develop socially responsible products such as microcredits microloans and financial services which are both affordable and accessible but we also need to ensure that each of these activities whoever is benefiting from them remains profitable and continue to generate wealth for our posts and this I'm sure will help to ensure that posts are key economic operators and socially responsible ones in terms of the wealth of their environment so these are our good intentions but we need to ensure that they are translated into action and many of the posts in our countries are trying to ensure that that is the case in particular in the countries of the north but we need to wonder how relevant these activities are for poorer countries in the south of different priorities which tend to be focused on economic objectives I want to be frank with you and I want to be constructive I'm trying to be pragmatic and frank about these issues that are sometimes dealt with in a very philosophical manner with regard to the environment and sustainable development of course we all think that we're all in the same boat and it's a matter for all of us and I believe in the issue of joint responsibility but I think as I said earlier we need to focus on economic targets in the context of posts and we've been adopting this approach in terms of ITCs the development of the internet we need to ensure that our posts are in the service of society and other economic operators so that we can create value and help to create jobs that's why we have very pragmatic proposals some would say some of our proposals are too down to earth but what we're trying to do is to ensure that we use post offices to have community cyber cafes we need to develop our social networks to the benefit of SMEs and indeed to help individuals such as farmers involved in handicrafts post offices can also be used to create financial inclusion and this is an issue that's been dealt with by a previous panel earlier most of our countries, less than 10% of people have access to banking services and in Côte d'Ivoire today there are about 8 billion CFA worth of transactions a day on our electronic networks that's about 2 million euros a day that's about 4 billion euros a year and those were services that were only launched about 2 or 3 years ago but now only about a quarter of our customers use these services so you see that there is tremendous potential if you look at the 22 million mobile phone users in Côte d'Ivoire today and when they start to use those services that's 22 million mobile phone users which means that there is tremendous potential so the use of post offices for providing administrative services and I think the director general of our posts talked about this earlier also trying to ensure that we digitize our services 300 of our information services where we provide information on behalf of the government and the state to our people are now digitized and we are trying to have a more interactive dialogue with our customers over the internet so we use the post in order to carry out awareness raising campaigns as I said earlier with regard to the prevention of HIV AIDS spread and now Ebola so to conclude I would like to say that we welcome the setting up of the carbon fund which is designed to promote the development of more environmentally friendly services and we do hope that that fund will help to go further than the efforts already made by many developing countries China Post is today providing basic commodities free of charge to poor women in China that have been given by donors and Chile are now handing out Christmas presents to young children so these are very small aspects in terms of cost but they are very important in terms of the social impact and I would like to welcome as well the efforts of some developed country posts to help to support developing countries such as the Austria Post projects in Mali and Ghana for ovens which are 50% more efficient than old ovens and they help to reduce the amount of wood and timber which is used by women for cooking in these countries a lot of different countries on a daily basis actually do follow good practices today that they've taken from the lessons learned from developed countries and our post offices for instance don't use a lot of energy in fact some post office don't even like electricity and a lot is done through post offices as well this has been said by a number of speakers the post box is a key aspect of the service and some countries are now going back to delivery in post office boxes in order to reduce the energy consumption because delivery of physical mail uses up a lot of energy so in Cote d'Ivoire the business model the logistics platform that we are implementing in the Cote d'Ivoire post includes our determination to ensure that this platform is made available to other e-commerce operators so we're pooling our efforts if you like and making our equipment available even to our competitors we rent out some of our premises if we believe that our premises are too large for the activities that we're involved with and we've tried to outsource our postal sorting offices to the port area instead of the airport in order to ensure that that is done more effectively so these are pragmatic measures that we've taken of course they're not huge in scale and they may not be philosophically particularly interesting but we are sure that with these small steps we are helping to protect the environment and ensuring that we are socially responsible and we are profitable viable in terms of a going concern and then just to complete my intervention I would like to say that we're trying to make sure that our posts are economic operators creating jobs and creating opportunities and help to improve the lives of our people ensuring as far as possible that we protect the environment in which our activities are deployed and I have to say to finish that there is a link between posts and ITCs and the development policy that we are pursuing in our post is very much dependent on the strategy that we are pursuing in ITCs because we want to ensure that our effective postal network provides inclusive services and so we need to take into account the development of the digital economy and that's absolutely vital because a lot has been said about that here which are true for the post but which don't necessarily take into account that beyond the postal sector we need to have an effective ITC infrastructure to help us in the posts achieve our objectives in a lot of developing countries that's not yet the case and this is a very fertile area we need to have an effective regulatory structure for these new ITCs this is something that is helping inclusion accessibility to services is facilitated and that's why we hope to create 300 new cyber cafes in Cote d'Ivoire we need to attract people to the use of ITCs in particular in rural areas because they'll come back to use postal services if they are connected so these are steps that we're taking to pursue our ITC and postal objectives commonly so there's a long way to go it's a long and winding road but we are determined to get there because we think that this will help our peoples and we think this will help our states we really don't have any other choice but to pursue this strategy thank you thank you thank you and I do hope that these are initiatives that you are taking deliberately and not just because you don't have electricity in your post office to minister now we're going to be listening to a union representative so to balance the speeches Mr. Phillip Jennings he's the secretary general of Uni Global Union he's been the head of the Uni Global Union since its creation in the year 2000 and described as the labour movement's global warrior his organisation represents the service sector and counts 20 million members in 150 nations and 900 unions Mr. Jennings accepted the nomination of UN secretary general with a three year term on the board of the UN Global Compact he also received the Nagasaki International Peace and Friendship please welcome him thank you well good afternoon everybody and thank you for those very kind words of introduction and I'm sure that the paradox of being turned a global warrior and receiving a peace award from Nagasaki is not lost on the observant of you I wish you a very good afternoon I'm very pleased to see so many here at such a late hour I represent Uni Global Union we are the voice of postal workers in this global economy of ours we are the voice of the 5.4 million staff and their families and dependents we are the beating heart the public face if you have a strong brand as postal service is everywhere it is because of the people that you employ they are the public face they are the face to the customer to the man and woman in the street and I'm delighted to see that the US Postal Service has put a 3.8 billion dollar valuation on the brand of the postal service the trade unions in America will take credit for this and no doubt this will be an essential ingredient to the next round of pay negotiations worldwide we organize we negotiate we promote we take a stand but we are partners for the growth of this sector this is a big year for all of us this is a year of what I would say is a planetary reset with the climate change talks the financing for development talks and above all sustainable development the question to all of us as leaders now is what did we do when we were challenged so to save this planet to finance development and to make sure that people were at the center of a new and sustainable world we can all agree that the Wall Street business model has not brought sustainability it has brought financial calamity the question to all of us is what responsibility will we take will we be up to the challenge can we unions yourselves postal regulators and operators can we deliver on this planetary reset Martin Luther King said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice the challenge to us and meeting that challenge is what are we going to do to deliver justice and to put people at the center of this sustainable development challenge you have spent these last two days talking about the challenges but it is important for me to repeat them but it is important for me to say what is the pulse of postal workers today those 5.4 million people I would say there is justifiable fear declining male volumes digitalization a new world of work fear insecurity what does that new world of work look like I would say ferocity and resilience we will get up 7 and we will get up 8 times ferocious in our belief in the postal network ferocious in the added value that it brings to our economies brings to business brings to people ferocious in our attachment in the recognition that this binds people together and above all hope of new possibilities of hope for post and its networks in the long term now time is short I would just like to leave a number of key messages to you you are a key to sustainable development the universal service obligation at an affordable price stands full square against the savagery and the short termism of financial markets of the business of business just being business I don't think that is your business you have broader societal obligations and responsibilities don't be knocked off course by come here go there political pressure or by market pressure be resilient be ferocious in your defense of public services and bring the leverage and the added value that it brings to our economies you are the bridge between that digital and the physical world you are the bridge in terms of financing for development and we heard from Aminar about the one billion account holders in the postal services side the bridge to families and communities not just in the neighborhood but in the global neighborhood and I'm so pleased to see that in Asia and Africa there are a few initiatives in terms of remittances the messages being listened to at the G20 in Brisbane I was there and it's now got a priority at a global level where it did not have it before I also think that in this process you don't need me to repeat all the good things that have been said about the role of post-complay in reducing its carbon footprint therefore I think that you have to present yourselves as a key in sustainable development don't be modest take a stand that when your government is talking about its plan for sustainable development that you have to be seen as a key actor don't be modest take a stand in the sustainable development goals they talk about people and democracy this has to be a sector where no human rights are questioned in the postal services that every worker if they desire should be a member of a union and should be able to join a union freeing from fear and intimidation and victimization that we are now in a new era within the United Nations system with the rugged principles of business and human rights and that sense of the due diligence you will now be obliged as employers to have due diligence in the extent to which you respect the human rights of the employees that you employ therefore no postal operator or some of those large private sector integrators should be acting inconsistently with those principles that there should be no union busting no intimidation I am getting fed up of the calls that I receive from around the planet and I am asking Philip my right to join the union is questioned why should I be thrown in front of a tribunal because I stood up for my people set the example in this postal sector that you will exercise due diligence to respect the rights of people to organize and also that we will take those agreements globally I'd be clear we want a global agreement with DHL with FedEx, with UPS in a conversation about how we can put some of these principles into practice we realize when we look at the distribution of wealth in our economies this is my point number three can we be inclusive in this sector tomorrow there is a day of action it's called 15 for 15 that is a push by workers at the lower end of the wage scale who basically live in poverty in the world's richest economy people working at McDonald's and Wal-Mart at airports and cleaners and security guards have decided in 200 cities and in 150 nations around the world to take a stand to say that the wealth being produced is not being distributed fairly and therefore I think in the postal service that you can also be an example in those sustainable development goals of the importance of collective bargaining and to ensure that no postal worker in employment is living in poverty this can be done there is enough wealth in this sector and as far as we're concerned one of the key ways of achieving this is through collective bargaining in conclusion the role of the UPU I see the sustainable development goals as being a very significant part of your future evolution and development I would say you must care about these goals and ask yourselves the question we want to make an impact not just to listen to the music but to make the music that you say clearly without fear but with great ambition we want to make an impact that you will measure the results of the work that you do and you will report back to one another on the progress being made there are 17 goals in the SDGs as Amina mentioned let's have a UPU, 17 goals let's take some yardsticks from within those 70 goals I'm not saying the whole piece of 169 to report on progress to show that you are making the contribution in this direction we welcome the dialogue that we have with the UPU we welcome the continuation with your director general Bishar Hussein and with Pascal Cleaver and the bureau and the secretariat they are open to our ideas and open to our participation we are delighted to have the social dialogue in Asia, in the Americas in Africa and in Europe these are platforms, these are bridges towards the achievement of sustainable development goals and we welcome this partnership to work with you I started with Martin Luther King and I'll finish with Martin Luther King when he said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere the challenge to us in this period of implementing the sustainable development goals is that all of us work together to ensure not just the future of posts and decent work but that there is justice everywhere thank you now if you ever wondered whether the international peace recipient or the global warrior would suit best Phillip Jennings, I suppose you have the answer as we all do we'll go down now with our next speaker I was with us through a pre-record message is Achim Steiner the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, the UNEP and under secretary general of the United Nations they couldn't make it to Geneva so he sent us a video Achim Steiner has been heading the UNEP since 2006 and will do so until June 2016 and prior to joining the UNEP Mr. Steiner served as director general of the International Union for Conservatory of Nature he also was secretary general of the World Commissions of Dams here is his message Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen director general of the Universal Postal Union my fellow panelists I would like to begin by thanking you for this opportunity to join this panel and also the discussion in the context of the UPU Sustainable Development Working Group and in particular the reflections upon how the Universal Postal Union's global community can be part of a response to climate change both in terms of managing the risks but also in realizing the opportunities that these responses offer to us and above all to make the universal postal community part of the capacity of what is ultimately a Sustainable Development Challenge I want to begin by commending the partnership that we have enjoyed between the United Nations Environment Program and the Universal Postal Union for quite a number of years now and I'm grateful for the director general for having continuously provided both direction and momentum to build on both the successes that we have had in the past in working together but more importantly in guiding our collaboration for the future I'm fully conscious of the fact that for many of you the Postal Services across the world the question of whether Sustainable Development and indeed the challenge of climate change belong into the mainstream of your work I would begin by saying that first of all if not you and if not me then who else if not us and only them would we indeed be able to respond both to the basic tenets of Sustainable Development also hopefully out of the September Summit a new set of Sustainable Development Goals and ultimately also our collective capacity to address the challenge of climate change it is everyone's responsibility and therefore I would appeal to you that in the way that you have already framed both your work on Sustainable Development but also the steps you have taken addressing the issue of greenhouse gases and also the opportunities for both reducing carbon emissions and then examining the options of mitigation and offsets really do belong into the mainstream of the business strategy of any Postal Service but let me also try and bring perhaps a few encouraging aspects that make this not an effort that would detract you from essentially delivering an effective and efficient Postal Service across the globe but to make the response and also the objectives of Sustainable Development and addressing climate change an opportunity for an even more effective efficient and responsible Universal Postal Union community the beginnings of this we really are first of all to establish what is our footprint and I think many of you will have been surprised that indeed Postal Service across the world are not an insignificant contributor alongside many other sectors to our collective emissions of CO2 and greenhouse gases therefore we are all part of both the problem but more importantly we will become part of the solution you have already taken a number of steps in terms of getting Postal Service at the national level to establish your greenhouse footprint and I want to commend you for this because without measuring and establishing and positioning your individual entities along the scale of whether you are a lower emitter or a high emitter it is very difficult to even begin to talk about measures that could be taken we are continuously evolving the greenhouse gas inventory and the methodologies and I'm very grateful and also commend UPU for having been part of this effort I also want to congratulate many of your Postal Services the members of UPU have already started to undertake this work it continues to build our capacity to respond both based on science and empirical evidence rather than speculation or aspiration only a second step clearly is how we can mitigate and ultimately also manage down our emissions footprint and here what has emerged in recent years first of all through the experience of many pioneering actors in our economies and societies North and South, large economies is actually quite encouraging equally within the United Nations system we now have a number of entities amongst them I probably would mention also the United Nations Environment Program who are climate neutral entities far from actually making us poorer or imposing on us undue costs we have found that we have achieved significant efficiency gains in contrary to expectations we have actually found that in many of the measures that we have since undertaken we have not incurred additional costs we have actually made savings we have become a more efficient and also more transparently managed organization whether it is in the context of our travel policy, whether it is in the encouragement of video conferencing but it is also in the context of managing our infrastructure, our buildings, offices vehicle fleets and electricity supplies across the world the net impact of trying to make UNEP a climate neutral organization has been that we have managed to between the year 2013 and 2015 to manage down our emissions footprint by a remarkable 17% even with the offsets that we have had to pay for those emissions that we could not avoid we have found ourselves in a position where we have actually saved money the potential for efficiency gains is quite remarkable and I think particularly in a logistics and infrastructure based service such as the Postal Service and particularly in your global network of postal organizations I think you would be surprised if you have already discovered this to be the case that there is a significant potential for repeating this experience but let me also be clear the idea is not to be politically correct the idea is to do what we can responsibly and within the context of the budgets and means by which we can act the bottom line is that for the foreseeable future many of our organizations will still have a carbon footprint that we cannot eliminate and therefore the next step is to offset these emissions through the kinds of offset schemes that exist today it is part of taking a responsible role but also to signal to others that we lead by example we cannot always ask other institutions other countries, other individuals to do the things that we are not prepared to act on in that sense I hope I can convey to you today the message that in measuring greenhouse gas emissions in actually exploring the potentials and thereby achieving enormous efficiency gains and ultimately also taking responsibility for offsetting those emissions which we cannot avoid we become part of a global fraternity and network of countries, institutions, individuals and enterprises that are indeed becoming part of the solution our partnership between UNED and UPU is one expression of this confidence in our ability to make a difference we stand ready to work with you also with your individual members wherever it is possible, feasible and wanted to try and explore the opportunities and also the boundaries within which we can act but ultimately let me conclude my remarks by simply emphasizing again how critical it is to interpret our response to climate change not only as a constraint or indeed as a cost factor but as an intelligent contribution to the broader sustainable development agenda and indeed to the realization of the goals and the principles of universality and integration that will form part of the framework within which all of us will have to act in the years to come thank you and I wish you a very successful meeting Ahem Steiner Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Our last speaker now comes from the Dominican Republic Mr. Modesta Guzman is the General Director of Impostom Dr. Guzman is a lawyer with private and public sectors it was a decisive part in the reorganization of the Christian Social Reformers Party through which he came to occupy a seat in the Chamber of Deputies he's also been CEO of Impostom over two different periods and his achievements have earned the Impostom glowing praise Mr. Guzman was also one of the main actors in the recovery of Haiti Postal Services in Transport of Humanitarian Aid in that situation thank you I appreciate colleagues Dear colleagues, I'd like to begin by thanking the Director General of the UPU Mr. Hussein and the Government of Côte d'Ivoire represented by the Prime Minister Mr. Bruno Nabaño-Cone the Minister who have allowed me to come here from a far off island in the Caribbean bringing with me the Caribbean sun I've been very impressed here I saw the photo of an elderly gentleman who was being helped to write a letter and I think that represents it's very symbolic because that represents inclusion because I think inclusion is a very important keyword for the Posts today we have something that we would like to say about inclusion in the Dominican Republic you don't have that you don't have the video are you chatting again? No, I'm not chatting I'm buying on the internet the Dominican Postal Institute presents in postmark which is the best way to make purchases over the internet with official guarantees we are the only official way of buying products over the internet in the country the Posts getting closer to you so I hope you like the video financial inclusion is a vital issue and that's something that I wanted to mention now the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has lowered economic growth forecasts for the region but it's said that the Central American Caribbean region will lead economic growth and the Dominican Republic has the economic growth at an average of 5% over the past few decades the Dominican Republic has been one of the strongest economies in Latin America reaching an average of 5.5% growth between 1991 and 2013 the Dominican Republic has excellent geography, political flexibility secure democracy and is a tourist destination for the region and for the world one of the main challenges that we have as posts in the short term is the need to adapt postal infrastructure to new realities and to the new role that posts must play and our sustainability will depend on our skill in using the strength of the postal network in ensuring that it becomes a more effective logistics network trends show that there will continue to be a strong demand for financial services and Tamara Cook from the Bill and Millenia Gates Foundation said that the UPU will need to work so that posts can be included within the financial sector and that that will be one of the key factors in trying to improve and indeed provide new postal services providing postal infrastructure that supports economic and political objectives set by governments in that regard we need to see changes in the region we need to clarify the concept of universal service universal postal service and indeed the conditions of meeting that service because the needs have changed in relation to universal postal services our view our vision is that our Dominican Postal Institute can help support a building a more committed society and we believe that we will be able to help achieve the strategic objectives set by governments a great achievement of the Dominican Post was getting the postal sector included in developing the National Development Strategy 2030 law and supporting the implementation of national development initiatives towards a better country we've just been playing our part in helping to achieve the sustainable development goals of our country Dominican Post has made great gains in terms of modernization greater efficiency and becoming more competitive meeting the rightful expectations of our clients and users thanks to this strategic leadership we have been able to achieve a strong position and a strong position in particular related to our economic activities the range of products that we provide is adapted to the needs of our people two experiences that we've had have been in developing e-commerce through the INPOSPAC Project and Exporter Facile INPOSPAC is the premium courier service of the Dominican Republic with international transport and retail and parcels and a service for e-commerce and it's 40% cheaper than services provided by competitors Export Facile is a simplified tool for exporting commercial parcels which is designed for small and medium sized enterprises who want to link up to international markets and there is guaranteed delivery of goods to all countries around the world and this is a tool which is designed to help the growth of small and medium sized enterprises and in particular from the handicraft sector so that they can sell those products in foreign markets it's an innovative service and it's a very direct, simple cheap and secure system and obviously it overcomes bureaucratic or burdens our view is that we need to ensure that all of our services help to improve the lives of our people and promote social inclusion which is a key aspect for national development I'd like to point out in stress that sustainable development has become a key aspect of postal development improving relations with customers developing new markets meeting the expectations of consumers throughout the territory promoting personal development of human resources and raising awareness of social and environmental use among our people we need to ensure that productivity and growth go hand in hand with promoting more flexible and flexible work arrangements for our employees and maximising benefits of automatic digital systems however, to be successful we need to ensure that this is fair and attractive to our workforce what we've been doing is reducing the use of motor bikes by encouraging the use of cycles and the French post has helped us with that as well we have non-communicable diseases in our country which is a great problem and we're trying to encourage people to use bikes and these health projects have been sponsored by the First Lady I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that I am the director general with I think most experience in the postal sector and I've heard a lot of speakers over the past couple of days talking about new ideas and when I received the invitation from the director general he said that this strategy conference would be taking place in the context of permanent evolution of the postal sector and that we need to look together at the difficulties and opportunities faced by the postal sector and that's why we're here but there's a vital thing that we need to do to achieve all of these objectives and that is faith we need to have faith faith in the sustainability of the postal sector faith to continue with our tasks and jobs faith in the concept of meeting customers expectations faith that we can do more with less understanding this message out to developed countries from a developing country mine Solanium Moreira talked a lot about this and that's someone I'd like to remember today faith is a key concept and that's why we're here at this conference through our faith in the post we've come from all of the different parts in the world we're here today because we all have faith in the system and I think that's a vital aspect the director general has faith in the postal sector because Mr Hussain has that faith deep within him and he has demonstrated that that he believes strongly in the postal sector ladies and gentlemen this strategy conference is a demonstration of that faith and it's a clear demonstration that all of us are committed to the postal sector and we all need to work together in this because the postal sector will remain sustainable if we all have that faith and keep that flame alive so after this I will ask you now to listen to the deputy director general of the post of course he began his career as a scientific counselor with Swiss Post he took responsibility of relationship with the UPU and many times he was head of delegation of Switzerland and the post operations council as well and on behalf of Switzerland he took the presidency of the drafting committee at the 23rd UPU congress Mr Cleaver you have the floor ladies and gentlemen colleagues, friends, minister, panelists ladies and gentlemen and director general the colleague well I always thought that post was one of the most beautiful women in the world but given the number of people who have been seeking our fortune in the recent years we have a lot of hope before us and I was indeed right this is an essential opponent of the global economy everyone recognised we've shown through the vision that we have set in place four years ago what we said eight years ago as well in this organisation it's a vision that we are sticking to we are called more and more to react to this vision we have included this sustainement development component within this and this is obviously natural the final panellists to be able to react to what colleagues have already said so I will try to do this invited a few minutes ago to listen to Amina Muhammad so the United Nations is a big family we belong to in a few months time we will discuss the millennium goals and called all of us to be at the heart of the implementation of the sustainable development goals post and the UPU are already actors in the sustainable development we've heard this many times and I will take up a few examples to illustrate this so in the area of posts we've had a clear interest in sustainable development in riding the wave of sustainable development around these three pillars the environment the economy and the social aspect of course this is the way we will guarantee our future for example in the area of the environment as Akim Steiner mentioned a short while ago the system will help us to reduce cost it's not just a statement we have clear examples of this for example Australia Post has saved 16 million dollars between 2012 and 2015 through responsible management of its buildings and its vehicles we also have the example of Samar Post a very small post but it has managed to reduce its expenditure, fuel expenditure by 54% Minister Kone mentioned the economic models that we could use we can bring in the environment and the economy together Philip Jennings mentioned the social pillar he made an excellent demonstration and showed that social dialogue diversity and minorities and long term training this can only be of benefit to posts here again we have examples and I'll take examples of small posts for example Salvador Post in the area of access for persons with disabilities to access to jobs access to post offices well it's not just up to the large posts to deliver on these goals everyone can do it in the area of sustainable economic development things are even clearer the example of financial inclusion is a clue, here we spoke about this this afternoon and that's a lazy swing so the strength of posts in the area of financial inclusion of those who have previously been excluded from the banking system this is a real asset the point of view of economic development of countries and the policies of inclusion as well as the point of view of post or revenue and income another recent example we have produced a study together with UN Women and this will be published shortly and it will show clearly that posts include women financially and economically much more than any other economic sector for example the banking sector I listened to Jean-Paul Forceville with regard to the capacity for posts to include people in the financial sector posts have been and will remain an area for public power we have been partners with the governments in many general policies whether it be social transfers and administrative aspects helping organise elections urban planning through addressing systems and others on a national level posts have already shown that they are actors in the area of sustainable economic development or even sometimes leaders as has been shown through the example of the French post which has taken the role of leader in the procurement platform for electric vehicles which brings together many companies from different areas this is also the case of Mauritius Post which was chosen as the main partner for the government's sustainable development strategy of course posts can do more and posts can do it better the UPU is there to guide them and support them in their endeavours so the UPU now this area of contribution to sustainable development UPU is of course ambitious yes we are ambitious however we must also be pragmatic we are not taking anyone's place or any place of any other organisation in this area we are not the UNDP we are not a large development agency but we are taking on our responsibilities our social economic societal responsibilities but of course environmental responsibilities come along with this we know that working together we can bring global solutions our strength is our global network this famous global post-war territory was set up over 100 years ago we don't necessarily have the financial means or the resources alone so that's why we need to set up partnerships and work together we've seen these the last two days working with the special organisation Migration I've found UNEP UN Women of course the Gates Foundation and others I can mention for many years we have continued to take significant efforts to convince our partners to work with us today for the benefit of tomorrow so we need to highlight our strategy for partnership further and that is vital the strength of UPU is also that that it's a global organisation the postal community in its well at the heart of sustainable economic development within the famous list of 17 sustainable development goals that are currently being discussed in the United Nations I can say with certainty that either alone or more often with partners that we have in the UPU we are active in 13 of these goals whether they be in the area of financial inclusion training friendships growth and development of SMEs and access to international markets also the promotion of investment and sustainable infrastructure fighting climate change and the effect on the economy and others as well we are already working in all these areas but of course we need to do more so that the postal sector is an important infrastructure for sustainable development and social and economic cohesion one of the benefits and assets of the postal family and of the UPU is also solidarity and the effective work we are carrying out in this area I'd like to highlight the role of Modesto Guzman who worked hard with the moment Haiti was severely affected several years ago the was the first to assist as well as with the US Postal Service as well we have worked in times of crisis in Indonesia Japan for example during the Fukushima disaster we have assisted not only when crisis have hit but in the reconstruction phase as well as with US Post and others we've been Sendai the Global Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and we have shown the role that the postal sector can play in these times in times of crisis as a structural element to assist post can also be an element that can highlight problems we have a project that is being brought together with the well meteorological organisation that we can use to warn populations when crisis are about to hit and natural disasters are about to hit so all these points that we need to bring together in our activities and our famous strategy for action to ensure that we can be effective in this sector and economic development in a broader sense can be delivered this is a contribution to the development of post but also through a contribution to the sustainable development goals of member states this is how the UPU will be relevant and effective strategy at the heart of our action the global strategy that includes elements of our changing times this is why we are not and will never work in isolation we need to come together to bring our benefits to our members to support development our strength is in delivery in specifics and we all our initiatives can be seen on a daily basis in economic and social life we will continue to work in this vein thank you thank you thank you very much I have one quick question to all for you a very quick one and maybe I don't know if the answers will be quick but you guys try I hear all these positive thoughts about sustainable development about the bright future and the difficulties as well that the post will be confronted to but at the same time isn't it difficult or isn't it even to be willing to achieve all these goals while at the same time the post main competitors do not play by the same rules socially financially environmentally how do you tackle that or try to tackle that Monsieur Minister President perhaps well a quick question and I'm going to try to reply to it I was saying a moment ago that our posts have to be socially responsible and in that context they need to go beyond considerations restricted to profitability it would be very difficult to envisage a post office that did not focus on issues of profitability because it would be dependent on the state if it wasn't profitable or viable as it going concern so you need to try to sort of square the circle I mean it's a conundrum in trying to promote social responsibility and going towards the poorest sections of the society and promoting inclusion while remaining profitable and that is the question most businesses today are faced by these new issues connected with sustainable development most businesses today are accepting responsibilities which involve costs I'm talking about banks insurance companies there are a whole number of sectors who are now taking measures to avoid being accused of undermining sustainable development and creating problems related to climate change and ozone depletion so we all have those responsibilities we're all on the same boat that's what I said earlier and if there's a hole in the boat then it's a problem for all of us and we need to ensure that this boat remains afloat we all have our duties and responsibilities if someone starts trying to make holes in that boat and I believe that postal sector that goes for the postal sector too I would say you have this great big wide wonderful representative responsible community known as the UPU strong in values strong in principles a very long history therefore I see you as probably the most long standing community of interest within the UN system bar none but there has to come a time in a world where the family has to take some of the difficult family members to one side and say look we understand as a global integrator you want to provide globally integrated services however that should be on the basis of fair competition and we will not accept any of these large globally globally integrated integrators taking an anti-union message undercutting what all of you are trying to do is to provide a service a universal service at an affordable price and I think the time has come to think very carefully about how can we deal with instances of behavior such as this it's a question for your administration but surely there must be a place where we can take these issues to you and say this behavior is not acceptable we know what the labor cost element is in all the contracts and the services that you provide and I think when you are trying to provide decent work to your national postal workers that when markets are open and those markets are open to competitors who may be responsible at home but are not responsible with you then I think it's time for the UPU to take a stand and to try and find a way of dealing with these measures in the case we have an interesting example with DHL we have a number of issues around the world and we have taken the issue to the OECD contact point and we are now in a developing dialogue with DHL to deal with these cases as they emerge in recent weeks we have FedEx and TNT we have the new situation with JapanPost in the process to purchase ZITEL in Australia and therefore this is going to come to your doorstep of unfair competition and therefore you have to try and find a way of dealing with this within the context of your work on sustainability maybe controversial but I think it's only fair to all of the decent work employers in the room that your decent work agenda is not undercut by unfair competition thank you you do have to face this already yes we are different we do focus on the human being a lot of businesses only focus on figures we focus as well on society and that's our strength because the human being is central to our activities we have always been sustainable because our main objective isn't just to make money but it's to have a universal postal service you managed to achieve that on a daily basis we do manage to do that and the more efforts we make at every level we can do that and that's our strength that's our difference that's why we are different to businesses because of the belief and the passion that we have in the sector others look at statistics figures, cold numbers that's not us is it up to UPU to try to fight this unfair competition well UPU is an intergovernmental organisation and its aim is to ensure that it's a global network that is operational and even though Philippe has been talking about Philippe has been talking about talking to some of the members of our family and taking them to one side the fact is everybody together decides on the rules of the game and UPU needs to ensure that it provides opportunities to discuss the rules of the game we have a congress now in 17 months time we have a wonderful opportunity to talk about the rules of the game and to get things off our chest we all need to take responsibility for this we can't substitute member states but together we can put pressure on those who might avoid their social responsibility thank you is flying as I was saying from the audience and if I'm correctly know what I'm talking about I think the first one should be coming from Pat Mendocca from the USPS is that correct no Japan also asked for yes okay please please go ahead then open your microphone okay thank you as you said my name is Pat Mendocca I'm from the US Postal Service I've been speaking in my role as the chair of the UPU Working Group on Disaster Risk Management a recurring theme that we've heard at the conference is the need for the post to adapt and change in order to stay relevant disasters are events that all posts must effectively deal with in order to accomplish their mission on a daily basis maintain trust and as a result the disaster risk management and building of resistance is very important to maintaining the postal sector's relevance the United Nations Development Program has highlighted that every dollar invested into disaster preparedness saves seven dollars in dealing with the aftermath of a disaster that's why disaster risk reduction is an integral part of the sustainable development agenda as Pascal mentioned our objectives for disaster risk management are to identify ways for the UPU member post to share lessons learned identify best practices regarding preparation for disasters and building resilience as well as providing assistance for the restoration of basic postal services after disasters as we prepare for the next cycle and identify the challenges that will be affecting our sector disaster risk management can be an investment in the postal sector as a whole and the UPU member posts on behalf of the members of the disaster risk management group I would like to appeal to all the participants here to support and promote our efforts to include the basic elements of disaster risk management and resilience building into the postal cycle thank you thank you any reaction does anyone want to react no so shall we go on I think Japan also requested to speak so if there is any Japanese represented please open your microphone thank you regarding a disaster due to climate change and other factors natural disasters happen anywhere in the world actually there were many natural disasters in the world as Mr. Klee mentioned in his panel such as in Indonesia Maldives Sri Lanka Pakistan United States of America China Philippines, Haiti and recently and so on including our country there are many challenges for disaster risk reduction which are being implemented as one of the important common issues in the United Nations in this situation we did initiative and collaboration with the United Nations there were held the third United Nations world conference on disaster risk reduction in Sendai, Japan the first conference in Yokohama and second one in Kobe in Japan indeed in this opportunity Japan would like to express our sincere appreciation to Mr. Pascal Kribas the director general of UPU to participate in this conference we recognize the postal sector has an important role and function to achieve transportation financing services and base station for affected community even during natural disasters happen so Japan would like to highly appreciate UPU's role to play to establish disaster management framework in line with Toha postal strategy it is important to minimize the damages and affect by natural disasters postal sector should improve its resilience for sustainable development at the same time it is efficient that UPU transmit that postal sector is able to contribute for disaster risk management activities to the world as its social responsibilities Japan also would like to expect these points will be reflected to the next Istanbul strategy in the next UPU congress thank you next speaker actually next would you like to react yes I know friends as well but in the list I have the WMO also wanted to speak World Meteorological Organization please open your mic I take it yes please go ahead turn on your microphone please there you go thank you Mr. Director General distinguished delegates I'd like to thank all of the panellists who've spoken about such interesting issues and I'd like to come back to what I mean Mohammed said and what Mr. Steiner said about the contribution to the WMO and UPU can make for their members to support the sustainable development goals and combat poverty and disaster reduction WMO and UPU are two of the oldest members of the UN family and we're lucky enough to collaborate work together and have been doing for some time in the future there will be more disasters in relation to climate change and postal services and our member states will have a great contribution to make to try to make states more resilient and strong and ensure that our systems are more effective even in the context of disasters and helping local and national governments to become more efficient and resilient in the face of disasters so with that in mind I can reiterate the solidarity of WMO and UPU to try to help members pursue those objectives thank you I'd like to give the floor to the delegation of France now thank you I'd like to come back to the carbon fund I'd like to point out that it has two objectives the low carbon emissions target of the postal sector which needs to be financed by posts in developed countries that need to finance projects on electrification and the move towards renewable energies or financing alternative vehicles in developing countries posts thanks to those projects the developed world can demonstrate their carbon neutrality so that's beneficial for both the second aim is climatic solidarity so the idea isn't just to transfer green technologies but also to transfer know-how to all carbon fund in the world which pursues these two objectives it's a win-win situation which is designed to help all of the 192 member countries to come to Istanbul and try to support the implementation of this fund perhaps it could be incorporated into the UPU and its strategy but in any case the postal sector by adopting this fund will be able to demonstrate at COP 2121 the next conference on climate change that it becomes the first official proposal it's something that's been announced by Ban Ki-moon and it's something that we have anticipated and tried to move ahead with we need to associate quality of service with quality of air thank you and I think country willing to air something with Costa Rica is it the case still hi how are you Hola a todos y a todas hello to everybody Costa Rica is in a region that for many years has been struck by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and that's why for Costa Rica it's vital to see the role played by posts along with local efforts to combat disasters and their impact in 2008 Costa Rica was struck by a terrible earthquake and thanks to the postal sector we managed to achieve a tremendously strong response in the effective areas and what we're asking from other posts as the United States has pointed out and other countries have said is to understand the importance of the posts active role in responding to disasters with national disaster response committees and posts can play that social role that they really have to play do you want to add something Mr Guzman the experience of the Haiti I can say that in the experience of Haiti I saw that the Haiti experience was useful in creating synergies between activating a mechanism in which the United States played a very active role and other countries from Europe in fact as well showing quick solidarity in the context of that disaster and that strengthened or raised the awareness of all of us that we need to show solidarity in responding quickly to support countries that have suffered from the impacts of such disasters President we have gone over time do we have time to take a few more questions or do we need to wrap up now I had over to you I think we need to stop there so I'd like to thank you very much for your attention and we've looked at issues which are very sensitive important for future of posts and future of citizens we are all customers we are all customers of posts we have benefits in universal service and we need to look at aspects of development of respecting the environment and respecting staff and employees and also the economic realities and profitability of the posts these are all the different aspects of the same same problem I think through the different presentations and different speakers today we see the need to move forward and also the trust you have in your institutions and how the customer views you and the trust they have in you I'd like to thank you very much for your attention we wish you an excellent evening and I will give the floor to the minister and president for the continuation of this conference thank you very much well I'd like to begin by thanking of course Mr Siruti the moderator the excellent way in which he's moderated this panel I'd like to thank the panelists of course for the wealth of the experience they've shared with us today in an excellent fashion I would also like now ladies and gentlemen to invite the director general Mr Bishar Hussein to take the floor for some concluding remarks and I will continue after he's taken the floor so you have the floor Honourable minister distinguished delegates ladies and gentlemen well after two days of very intense discussions covering the main issues facing our sector I've been given the daunting task to summarize the work and the thoughts the ideas the suggestions the preparations and the presentations given by 46 eminent speakers and interventions from many delegates from this floor Your Excellencies I want to tell you this that no stretch of imagination can I be able to summarize all the things that have been said here with the space of time that we have and certainly I will not be able to much the passion and eloquence with which the great speakers before me have spoken here however let me take this opportunity Your Excellencies just to let you know that I want us to have the same pictures speak a thousand words first of all let's have a quick reflection and see what has been going on for the last two days in pictures form I want to apologize that we are not able to add voice to it but hopefully we are going to have that Your Excellencies ladies and gentlemen I know it's late and I have a serious task ahead of me just to let you know that nearly 800 delegates from 136 countries this is a record strategy conference that we have seen in the history of Universal Postal Union first of all may I take this opportunity Your Excellencies to thank our host government for really taking leadership and organizing this great conference Mr. Minister on behalf of the entire members of Universal Postal Union here I want to convey to you and to your government and the Prime Minister who is with us here our most sincere thanks for really leading this very important conference Your Excellencies allow me also to thank the eminent speakers the great men and women who have spoken here who have made this very very interesting session for us I also want to thank our great panelist moderators who have facilitated our work this by name Mr. McFer Mr. Peter Somers and Mr. Michael Suriti I want to say can you please give them a big round of applause please these men have skillfully led our debates with great professionalism and dynamism and efficiency I want to say also that I want to extend my sincere thanks to the great team from Universal Postal Union the International Bureau who are here who have been working behind the scene and who have made this conference a success Your Excellency first of all let me just make a short comment about this conference this is very unique in its format, in its structure and the way we have planned it and I'm very glad that it has come together the way it has Your Excellency this is complete departure from what we have in Universal Postal Union our normal meetings our meetings are very long sometimes very tedious and very boring speeches but I can tell you that the purpose of this conference the last two days was to make it very interactive very very engaging very stimulating thought provoking and this is what I had promised to you when I opened up the stage yesterday this is our new approach to running business in the Universal Postal Union and I want to thank all those who are involved in making this a success Your Excellency I have to say again that if there is one message I really want because really to wrap this up we must come down to really what is the what is the thing one thing that you want to take out of this place and the one message which comes out quite clearly in my mind is that the environment of the post and UPU we have been used to for many decades and probably about a century has changed and is changing very dramatically we must all adapt to these new realities for the posts and UPU to remain relevant the big question is which has been asked over and over again directly or indirectly is how do we do this what do we need to change when do we change and by what means do you want to change Your Excellency this question may not have been asked directly but this is what we have discerned from the discussions that we have the view that has come over and over again is that we need to change UPU and the post and we need to change it now and not tomorrow the question is how do we do it to us what has come out here is something we have thought about it in Universal in the IB and we have trained this idea through our councils we have also consulted our member countries and when we came up with the three eyes innovation integration and inclusion to me these are the fundamental three issues that really was underlined here by this conference during the last three days Your Excellency just allow me to then at this point to highlight what really the great speakers have spoken about this certainly this may not cover everything that has been said I want to assure you that within a very short time the entire report of this conference will be able to be available on our website for all of you to access and that you will have it very shortly however, let me say this that from the technical team that has supported me really in preparing this report the fundamental issues that come to us is that innovation this is a prerequisite for the future of the postal sector integration of networks products and services is key to building a seamless postal network in line with the changing global environment the postal services are driven are drivers for inclusive and sustainable development these are the themes that have been coming to us Your Excellency, let me expand on this a little bit the first message that clearly emerged from our strategy conference is that we must innovate to adapt and indeed anticipate a changing global economic and technological business and social environment with male volumes declining we must shift the postal paradigm and put innovation at the top of our agenda in order to take advantage of the new opportunities that are emerging around us consumer behaviour is changing postal operators regulators, governments and the UPU need to think outside the box and design new business models we have had several examples of posts that have transformed the way they conduct business in order to respond to the new demands from customers and to the requirements of the e-commerce Your Excellency the last two days we have had a great deal about e-commerce e-commerce is one of the key strategic areas of focus for the UPU innovation in e-commerce area also calls for appropriate global response from UPU having had many interventions since yesterday and the affirmations of the panellists in the third session I am even more confident and convinced that the UPU e-commerce programme offers the right solutions and response to the market UPU e-commerce provides a tailored framework for the development of international e-commerce through the postal network the postal sector holds key and with ECOMPRO UPU has focused on the right things this was said by eBay yesterday an eminent speaker or panellist who has spoken here Mr Chopra of Canada post said we can't be the network of the leftovers I quite agree with him we must be not be the network only providing those leftovers we have the network we have the rich we have got the potentials and we have faith that the post office can be able to deliver the best in the market Your Excellencies these are clear and strong messages and therefore it was urgent to act and ECOMPRO presents a first step in responding to the needs of the international e-commerce however we need to go further some of the concerns expressed reliability of the postal network adopted remuneration predictability and clarity in the product mix and achieving a win-win situation for the customers and the post among those challenges we have to tackle as we move forward we got the message and we shall act on that Your Excellencies communication technologies represents a tool and opportunity for posts to transform that's what we have been told yesterday and to offer and create new added values services we had many examples from countries around the world of the capacity of posts to innovate and embrace new technologies and enter the digital space however while the posts are often ranked as the most trusted agency they will face challenges in transferring this trust to the digital economy unless they develop a digital competence and ensure that they are able to demonstrate this competence with so many examples of how the traditional postal business is transforming itself through innovation and market evolutions all of this must be supported by enabling regulations and here again we are talking to our regulators our debates have shown that there is a need for a renewed regulatory approach to the postal sector in all its dimensions mobile, financial services logistics, e-commerce trade facilitations etc the UPU will remain a partner for the postal community in this endeavours Your Excellencies the next theme that came out quite well after innovation what simply in a simple words what we are told in innovation is that we must innovate in our technologies we must come up with new products and services that meet the customer demands of today the next thing that's one pillar the next one is integration unless we are integrated your innovations are useless if you have a very efficient postal network and your next country which is next to you here doesn't have the network then your efficiency is all lost I would say that the second theme that we can draw from our debate is that integration of the network products and services is critical in building both seamless global postal networks and business development opportunities at the international level what is needed is full integration between various stakeholders of the supply chain posts the transport sector and customs and border securities are all very important in our business developing interconnections between customs and post is of paramount importance in facilitating cross-border e-commerce your excellence is the UPU and world customs organization have been working very closely together to develop joint programs and processes needed to facilitate the circulation of items across our borders interoperability of international postal network is one of the main goals of our business as we have had in many innovations yesterday and today postal operators operations are increasing in complexity integrated technological solution based on common standards are necessary to facilitate global exchanges your excellence here again the UPU is bringing concrete answers and solutions to the postal community by providing standard IT infrastructures solutions and services to designated operators with UPU track and trace services which covers nearly 94% of the world's post messaging through the post networks financial payment services and with IFS we provide a full and affordable infrastructure to all regardless of their level of development this integrated UPU approach is vital to ensuring both the development of e-commerce and postal trade facilitation at world wide level it must continue to be strong component in our next strategy roadmap your excellences this brings me to my third pillar here which is inclusion and sustainable development without any doubt our conference has shown the postal sector's role as a driver of inclusive and sustainable development inclusion has been a key word in almost all our panels the capacity of the postal sector to foster inclusion in all its dimensions social, economic and financial has been underlined throughout our conference this message is clear if it is not us then no one else can do it I can tell you that so we have just to do that inclusion is very critical and has been underlined by many speakers inclusion of micro small and medium size enterprise in the world market is one example of how the postal network can contribute to offering economic opportunities this was said yesterday secondly the topic of financial inclusion of unbanked and excluded population is now high on the agenda of governments and posts and also other international organizations level the postal financial inclusion is becoming a strategic priority in many countries around the world from Africa to Europe and from Asia to Latin America this afternoon you have had Madam Amina speaking greatly at length on how the postal sector can become a very important infrastructure for providing this inclusivity agenda which is now going to be adopted this is nothing new for us the post has been delivered in financial service for many decades the UPU is very active in the financial inclusion field and working with strong partners such as IOM who are convinced that the post have a major role to play in financial inclusion through innovative e-services postal networks are drivers for digital inclusion the information society needs to be accessible to all and the postal sector can help to achieve these objectives the importance of the universal service in delivering inclusion was underlined the universal service serves as an infrastructure that helps support the inclusion objectives we had today inclusion through posts represent a fundamental contribution to the sustainable development goals in the financial community protecting our environment is a major component of the sustainable development goals and the post must be prepared to participate and provide solution in this area the resilience of the post to natural disasters as well as contribution to post disaster response was emphasised by several countries particularly in the last panel discussion the U.P.U. acts to help its members to respond to these difficult situations but also to serve their communities your excellencies ladies and gentlemen through integration innovation the postal sector will help deliver inclusion and foster sustainable economic development each element is dependent on the other and therefore we must all act together in all these dimensions ladies and gentlemen for inclusion innovation, integration and inclusion are for me the main drivers that should shape our strategic framework for 2017 to 2020 my ambition is for all of us to deliver together by 2020 a postal world where innovation is shared promoted and driven not a luxury but as a reality for all of us my vision that a postal world we should be able to create a postal world where full integration of network at national, regional and global level is no longer an objective but a reality for all of us it's also my vision that a postal world in which our sector unique ability to include populations economic actors and territories is fully recognised and exploited by governments development partners and international organisations however for us to achieve these objectives we need to transform the universal postal union the universal postal union needs to undergo a profound and fundamental transformation by 2020 we need quicker and more efficient decision making processes we need to transform our regulations and practices and we deal with these development issues we also need to have a clear and adaptable mandates which we can be able to implement we must come up with quick and concrete proposals for reforms I want to emphasise here that the change that we have all asked for here we have only very short window between now and October we must all act together very very fast to come up with real proposals which can change this organisation and this has to go to the council administration in October from there then it can be able to meet the deadline for us to change these things in 2016 congress if we miss that train I can assure you we have to wait until 2020 before we can take a decision and I can tell you the market is not going to wait for us Your Excellency I would like to say our strategy conference has paved the way to our next roadmap the ideas flowing from this conference will be further refined through seven regional roundtables over the next couple of months before a final examination by our councils and a final approval by congress as a global postal family let us not miss this opportunity to build an even more relevant postal sector and a UPU that is more efficient transformed and fit for purpose Your Excellency I want to conclude with final remark the last speaker here who spoke Mr. Guzman said that we must have faith in the UPU I am very optimistic person and together myself and the entire team of International Bureau are determined Your Excellency on a final note again I must say that I and Deputy Director General were greatly humbled really for the expression of support and the confidence with which you have expressed to us this really touched us for us it was just a normal course of duty when you elected us in 2012 we took the promise to be able to deliver to you a UPU UPU and the post must change for us UPU and the post will change and together we will move the world thank you very much for your attention Your Excellency Congratulations to the Director General of the UPU and I would like to thank him very much for his excellent engaging statement I would like to congratulate him and all of his team for the boost they give us on a daily basis the assistance they give us as the Universal Post Reunion so ladies and gentlemen I don't want to take up any more of your time but you must I like that there were two requests for the floor that we have not followed up on so we with your permission of course to give the floor to two countries who did not have the opportunity to speak Iraq and China if the representatives are still in the room if they're not here I think our work is done and we can continue so before moving to close I would like to following the Director General to state that of course they will be following up for the strategy conference regional conferences that will lead up to Istanbul Congress in 2016 so of course we must take the opportunity now to give the floor to Turkey now the host of the conference 2016 so Turkey Turkey you have the floor if he's not in the room Turkey Turkey you have the floor hello everyone Turkey we will host the European meeting in 2016 in Istanbul the things the law has been changed in 2013 and we adopted new law by this law the regulation and the operation site and the regulation site has changed we determined as the regulator of the sector and we will try to do our best in 2016 to arrange all the things about the meeting we look forward to seeing you in Istanbul thank you thank you thank you Turkey for those words I hope we'll all see you in Istanbul in 2016 I'd like to give the floor to China now and I do apologize for taking us back China thank you for giving me the floor we'd like to take this opportunity to say how much we appreciate the work of the International Bureau directed by the Director General Mr Bishar Hussein and the Deputy Director General Mr Kliwaz since they took on their role a strong management team and indeed a stable one the UPU International Bureau is absolutely necessary and we're convinced that the Director General Mr Hussein and the Deputy Director General Mr Kliwaz are capable of continuing to lead the organization and help the Member States meet all of the challenges that we are currently facing and promote the development of the personal sector worldwide thank you thank you China for those very kind words so ladies and gentlemen this brings us to the final straight of this strategy conference after that engaging speech by the Director General I don't think I need to make a speech but I'd like to just say a few words if you allow me and beg your indulgence we've come to the end of this 2015 World Strategy Conference on the issue of innovative strategies integrated and inclusive strategies and to deal with that issue the UPU developed a program with nine panels dealing with very very interesting strategies having noted that globalization led to increasingly fast changes in the world we heard that the postal sector was part of those changes and needed to actually respond to those changes by extending their networks posts have a fundamental role to play in the development policies of our countries in particular in relation to financial inclusion and equity reduction strategies in our countries ladies and gentlemen I heard often that the postal sector is a postal family and the fact that there are so many in high level delegations here at this conference and at this closing ceremony I believe is clear proof of that solidarity let's ensure that we work together to help our respective posts take further steps forward and rise to the challenges that we all face ladies and gentlemen over two days we've talked about change transformation and I think it's quite obvious the change itself isn't really a choice but it's an obligation the director general has repeated that and has said that it's an obligation for all of us our peoples have legitimate expectations that our institutions, governments multilateral organisations have a duty to respond to we have that obligation to provide innovative solutions integrated and inclusive solutions to our peoples the good news is that we can do it we are capable of rising to that challenge and I'm sure that we can do that if we work together the world will continue to evolve and so the postal sector needs to evolve along with that and continually adapt so far we've always managed to do that and I'm sure that we'll be able to do that in the future so let's remain actors and drivers of change in this world ladies and gentlemen distinguished delegates I'd like to finish on behalf of His Excellency Alasen Watera president of Côte d'Ivoire and on behalf of the prime minister Duncan who was here yesterday to express our thanks the sincere thanks of Côte d'Ivoire to the director general Mr Bishah Hussein to the deputy director general and indeed to all of the staff of the international bureau for the quality of the way in which they have welcomed us here and the way in which they have treated my delegation since we arrived here in Geneva I'd also like to congratulate all of the panellists and all of the experts for their various contributions to the discussion and for the brilliant comments that we've heard over the past two days and I'd like to thank all of you delegates and I'd like to congratulate you all for your respective contributions to the success of our work so can I have a round of applause please for everybody when we leave Switzerland who has welcomed us so well I would like to reiterate the thanks of Côte d'Ivoire to the whole of the postal community and to this country which is so close to our hearts I assure you that your hopes I think have been met by coming here and I really hope that we've done this event justice so by way of conclusion I'd just like to say that Côte d'Ivoire would like to reiterate its determination to support UPU and the international postal community in rising to all of the challenges faced by our countries currently and in the future and could I wish you all a safe journey home to your countries I declare this conference closed to this 2015 World Strategy Conference thank you very much for your attention