ENG-1995 — Page 396

COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA

The Post Office premium service, Speedpost, which provides door-to-door collection and delivery service for customers sending time-sensitive documents, samples or merchandise, continued to grow. The number of acceptance offices expanded from 37 to 49 and the pick-up service was extended to the whole New Territories. A total of 4.2 million Speedpost items were handled in 1995, representing a slight decrease of 2.0 per cent from 1994. With an expanded network covering 74 countries, the Hong Kong Post Office ranked third in the world in terms of Speedpost traffic, after the USA and Japan. Major exchange partners included China, Japan, the USA and the Republic of Korea.

A reliable and efficient postal service has been an important factor in Hong Kong's development as a leading commercial, financial and industrial centre. The Post Office provides two deliveries each weekday to commercial and industrial areas and one delivery to residential areas.

Performance standards are published for the delivery of mail and for the counter service. The Post Office was able to achieve the pledged standards, and in most areas exceeded them, in 1995.

Two new post offices, the Hing Man Street Post Office and the Siu Sai Wan Post Office, were opened, bringing the total number of post offices in the territory to 126. To maintain the high quality of the airmail service in the face of ever-growing traffic and to achieve greater operational efficiency, a $187 million contract was awarded for the provision and installation of an integrated mail-processing system for the new Air Mail Centre at the new Chek Lap Kok Airport. The system consists of the most modern sorting equipment in the world for handling letters, packets, parcels and Speedpost; a storage and retrieval system for mailbags and airline containers; and a comprehensive mail conveyance system.

To further enhance efficiency and lower operational costs, the Post Office continued to introduce more mechanisation and automation in the counter and mail- handling processes. It installed 226 new electronic letter scales, which are more efficient and accurate than mechanical scales, at 64 major post offices. New electronic stamp-vending machines were installed at 64 post offices.

To enhance the efficiency of administrative communication in the Post Office Headquarters and the regional offices, an Office Automation System was set up in February.

A tender was awarded for the procurement and installation of two special machines at the General Post Office and International Mail Centre to automate the existing manual process of facing and segregation of mail items collected from street posting boxes. The machines can detect and cancel stamps on a letter-size item, and sort the item to the designated stacker for local and foreign mail. It is expected that productivity and efficiency will be enhanced when the machines commence operation in late 1996.

A feasibility study was being conducted on the introduction of a computerised information system to speed up the tracking and tracing of local and overseas letters, parcels and Speedpost in order to meet with increasing demand for prompt response to enquiries made by the public.

The trial use of a prototype automatic mailing system by the public in the General Post Office was completed. Based on the feedback, a Mark II prototype is being

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