Two sub-businesses of the State Postal Bureau (SPB), or China
Post, are expected to amalgamate within the year, according to
sources from one of them, China Post Logistics Co Ltd (CNPL), on
Tuesday.
The merger of Express Mail Service (EMS) and CNPL is intended to
create a logistics giant to contend with four international firms,
DHL, UPS, Fedex and TNT, that have stepped up efforts to penetrate
China's market in recent years.
The aim is to reduce operation costs and enhance
competitiveness, and experts have called the move urgent as China
will open up all its logistics industry to foreign capital at the
end of this year.
The new China Post Group Corp is hoped to be an important
profiting-making service, and its formation is a part of
long-awaited reforms endorsed by the State Council late last
month.
The wider reform package focuses on separating the government's
administration of the sector from the running of its constituent
businesses.
The SPB, currently both regulator and profit-making company,
will become responsible for making rules and setting standards
independent of business operations. China Post Group Corp will run
postal services.
Postal savings, which now contribute 39 percent of total
revenue, will also be separated and a new bank formed to run
them.
(Beijing Morning Post, translated by Yuan Fang for
China.org.cn, August 12, 2005)