A major #milestone has been achieved, with the Plenary Council of Administration (CA) of the Universal Postal Union (#UPU) adopting the new Rules of Procedure, the new #applicationprocess and #application form, and the new #internalorganization and #fee structure of the Consultative Committee (#CC) last Friday (20 May) during its #Plenarysession.

All these #changes are necessary to allow #privatesector entities to become #members of the Union via the Consultative Committee from 1 July 2022. The next 35 days will see an updated UPU home page and further I#nformation for interested parties.

We have already outlined why private sector entities might wish to join the UPU. Over the past month, the #development of the postal #B2B2C supply of #retailgoods using interconnected and managed #warehouse #infrastructures; transit and transshipment models for #postaldelivery; the #forwardintegration of mandatory #electronicadvanceddata; new mobile and geographic #location solutions for addressing purposes; and a renewal of #postal #paymentsolutions have all stimulated additional interest in #membership of the UPU CC.

While non-governmental #organizations will remain the #backbone of the CC, facilitating access for their members whose interests they represent through #involvement in projects and development initiatives #worldwide, new #privatesector entities are already getting ready to engage with standing groups and #committees of the Union in order to actively participate and share their #knowledge and #experience.

It is expected that new UPU CC #members will bring postal #innovations and seamless #integration to state-of-the-art digital mobile, quantum computing and cloud #services, as well as a better understanding of a postal sector-specific trusted #communication #infrastructure as facilitated by the Union.

To achieve its objectives, the UPU CC will introduce six thematic chapters to complement the new structure of the UPU Postal Operations Council and UPU Council of Administration: These may be amended by the #Committee as needed, but are currently:

· Policy and regulations
· Freight and transport
· Customs and product security 
· Addressing and direct marketing 
· Ecommerce 
· Postal financial services

Over the coming months and years qualified opinions from UPU CC members are expected to benefit the UPU and the #postalsector as a whole, simultaneously fostering further #harmonization and greater mutual #understanding amongst all the postal #stakeholders.