XN000022-1993-05-10 — Page 13

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MONDAY, MAY 10, 1993

IT HANDLES MORE THAN ONE MILLION MAIL ITEMS EVERY DAY.

AMONG ALL POSTAL SERVICES, SPEEDPOST IS THE PREMIUM AND MO97 RAPIDLY EXPANDING ONE.

LAST YEAR, HONG KONG WAS THE WORLD'S SECOND LARGEST HANDLER INWARD SPEEDPOST ITEMS, ONLY AFTER THE UNITED STATES.

OF

SENIOR CONTROLLER OF POSTS (INTERNATIONAL MAIL CENTRE), MR PHILIP YAM CHUNG-YIU, SAID THE CENTRE HANDLED A TOTAL OF FOUR MILLION SPEEDPOST ITEMS LAST YEAR, REPRESENTING AN INCREASE OF 14 PER CENT OVER 1991.

CHINA IS HONG

KONG'S LARGEST PARTNER IN THE EXCHANGE OF SPEEDPOST, ACCOUNTING FOR ABOUT ONE-THIRD OF THE TOTAL VOLUME, FOLLOWED BY JAPAN, THE UNITED STATES AND TAIWAN,

HE SAID THESE FOUR COUNTRIES REPRESENTED OVER 80 PER CENT OF THE TOTAL INCOMING SPEEDPOST [TEMS AND OVER 50 PER CENT OF ALL OUTGOING SPEEDPOST TRAFFIC LAST YEAR.

"THE HUGE VOLUME OF SPEEDPOST HANDLED REFLECTS THE VITAL ROLE OF THE IMC IN OUR INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND THE CLOSE TRADING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HONG KONG AND CHINA, MR YAM ADDED.

THE IMC SENT OUT ABOUT 300,000 ITEMS OF AIRMAIL OR A TOTAL OF 44 TONNES DAILY LAST YEAR.

THE UNITED STATES

—

THE MAJOR DESTINATION OF EXCHANGE, ACCOUNTS FOR ABOUT 20 PER CENT OF THE TOTAL VOLUME. THIS IS FOLLOWED BY THE UNITED KINGDOM, CHINA AND JAPAN,

THIS MEANS THAT ON AVERAGE ONE IN EVERY 20 PERSONS IN HONG KONG SENT OUT AN AIRMAIL ITEM FACH DAY LAST YEAR. AND THE LOAD WAS: 2.6 KILOGRAMS OF AIRMAIL ITEMS FOR EVERY PERSON LAST YEAR.

"THESE FIGURES ARE ENTIRELY OUT OF PROPORTION TO THE POPULATION AND THE SIZE OF HONG KONG.

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AND ONLY WITH AN ACE SERVICE COULD THE KING-SIZED POSTAL DEMAND OF THE PEOPLE HERE BE MET, HE SAID.

THE IMC ALSO DEALS WITH A DAILY AVERAGE OF ABOUT 60,000 SURFACE MAIL ITEMS. CHINA IS THE NUMBER ONE PARTNER OF EXCHANGE.

MR YAM SAID THE ADVANCED LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY AND A HIGH DEGREE OF AUTOMATION HAD ENABLED THE IMC TO COPE WITH SUCH A LARGE VOLUME OF MAIL ITEMS EACH DAY.

MORE, A MECHANISED LETTER SORTING SYSTEM (MLSS) WAS INSTALLED

IN 1990.

THE MLSS COMPRISED THREE OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITIONS (OCR), TWO VIDEO CODING MACHINES (VCM) AND 28 VIDEO CODING DESKS (VCD). THE OCR AND THE VCM TACKLES AN AVERAGE OF 20,000 AND 1,500 MAIL ITEMS AN HOUR RESPECTIVELY.

/"THE MLSS