Malawi for harmonised postal union amendments
Malawi has called for the harmonisation of Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) constitutional amendments so that the 46 member countries deliver universal postal services in line with the changes on the global economic landscape.
Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Erica Maganga, said Malawi as a member of PAPU, supports the amendments of the Union so that citizens in respective countries are served better in the postal sector.
Maganga said this on Wednesday in Antananarivo, Madagascar in an interview after the country’s president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, opened PAPU’s 5th Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Conference.
“Technology is changing and we are affected in the way we deliver postal services if we stick to old ways of doing things. Malawi supports PAPU proposals to reform the Act so that we are relevant to the current technological era and able to deliver postal services better, especially to people in rural areas who depend on postal services much,” said Maganga.
In his opening remarks, Madagascar’s president, Rajaonarimampianina urged PAPU members to harmonise the recommendations and take one position for African countries. He said delivery of postal services cannot be effective if the Act amendments continue being obsolete.
“It is unthinkable that the postal sector can survive if the recommendations are not considered, Africa must harmonise its position on postal matters of the world. This congress is very necessary to contribute to postal growth,” said Rajaonarimampianina.
PAPU Secretary General, Youuness Djibrine said since the establishment of PAPU on January 18, 1980, its Acts have only been amended once in 1988. He said further amendments made in 2009 are yet to come into force due to failure to meet the 51 per cent quorum of member states present and the voting that is required to ratify them.
“Three decades since the last effective amendment, it must be admitted that sweeping changes have taken place on the global economic landscape as a whole and the postal environment in particular,” said Djibrine.
He said mindful of the need to act urgently, the 37th Ordinary Session of the PAPU Administrative Council met in Algeria in April this year (2018) and deliberated on the proposed amendments of the Acts of the Union.
“These proposals are the outcome of an extensive review of the Acts by the legal experts taskforce which had met in Tanzania in November 2017. The administrative council endorsed and submitted the proposed amendments to the Plenipotentiary Conference for approval,” he said.
Some of the proposals are to increase the number of administrative council members from 20 to 25 prorata to the geographical distribution applied by the African Union and also to transfer Article 25n of the African Union’s Consultative Act in its current wording into the Acts of PAPU.
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