ENG-1999 — Page 413

COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

After Hongkong Post commissioned a leading customer service consulting firm to conduct a two-year training programme to nurture a customer-oriented culture, over 3 500 front-line staff attended training courses in 1998. The remaining 2 500 staff performing back-office duties attended the training courses in 1999.

Hongkong Post has frozen the principal postage rates for three years since 1996. A reciprocal remittance service with Philippine Post was launched in December 1999. The remittance service is available locally in all post offices and over 1 800 post offices throughout the Philippines. Hongkong Post also had plans to launch a similar service with China Post in early 2000.

Great efforts have been made to improve and promote the Speedpost service. For example, the delivery network has been extended to 85 destinations including major trading partners such as the Mainland, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Taiwan. The 30-kilogram Speedpost Superpack was introduced to provide value-for-money service. Two drop-boxes were provided in Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui to provide after hours posting convenience and acceptance of Speedpost posting was extended to 26 commercial buildings with mailroom facilities.

A new service-Local Courierpost--was introduced on April 12 to cater for both business and individual needs for local express delivery of documents and packages. In response to customer feedback, Hongkong Post extended in August the acceptance network to 126 post offices and further enhanced the service.

Hongkong e-Post service, which turns electronic messages into physical paper mail, achieved a steady growth in turnover during the year. The service, which was initially used by government departments, was extended to commercial clients as more companies out-sourced their printing and enveloping functions.

The Postshop of Hongkong Post has aroused the interest of customers in collecting postal souvenirs by introducing a series of elegant and thematic products for sale at some 32 post offices, through the mail order service or through placing orders at Hongkong Post's web site. The 24-hour on-line Internet shopping service was introduced during the year as an extra convenience for customers.

In August, the Sheung Tak Post Office was opened for business, bringing the total number of post offices in Hong Kong to 129. In September, the Postal Gallery was opened at the General Post Office to promote public interest in, and understanding of, the local postal service. It exhibits a wide range of postal artefacts and philatelic items selected from Hongkong Post's archives and also displays the current service information and souvenir products of Hongkong Post.

Hongkong Post continued to review existing postal operations to look for areas for improvement and explore new opportunities for further mechanisation and automation to enhance efficiency. A 'Post-It-Yourself" station was launched at the Tsim Sha Tsui Post Office in June on a trial basis to provide customers with the convenience of 'one-stop mailing' and saving their time in queuing. The new facility comprises a system for automated assessment of postage of mail items, a vending machine for selling postage labels and a posting box for accepting mail items.

Development of the computer system, which has been implemented since 1997, continued for tracking and tracing Speedpost items. The system, which was extended in 1998 to cover the processing of mail bags exchanged with overseas postal

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