Zimbabwe commemorates World Post Day

ZIMBABWE on Friday commemorated the World Post Day by opening a containerised village information centre (CVIC)in Rutenga aimed at bridging the digital divide in the country.

Gift Machengete, POTRAZ director general.

Information Communication and Technology (ICT) minister Jenfan Muswere said efficient and affordable ICT infrastructure and services allow countries to participate in the digital economy and to increase their overall economic well-being, competitiveness,digital inclusion, poverty reduction and improved health.“As we celebrate this day, we should keep in mind that knowledge in the use of ICTs is now a basic need and an essential skill for productivity and development,” he said.

“As such, government, in conjunction with the Postal and Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) has taken the necessary steps to facilitate access to ICTs, through the establishment of Community Information Centres (CICs) at Post Offices throughout the country.” The CIC’s comprise a training room, gaming room and an internet café. In an effort to cater for under served and unserved rural communities where there are no Post Offices at all, Potraz then embarked on establishing containerized village information centres. To date,24 CVICs have been established across the country. Muswere urged community members to fully utilise the CVICs to improve agricultural production as well as their technological awareness.

“Do not vandalise the equipment or allow it to be vandalised. Guard your community information centre jealously as it is your gateway to sustainable community development and personal advancement. I also implore you to use the internet responsibly, for your good,as technology has its own negative impact,” he added.Gift Machengete, the Potraz director general, also told thousands of people attending the event that the setting up of the CVIC resonated well with this year’s World Post Day Commemorationstheme “Delivering Development is Delivering Progress”. “It is indeed indisputable that Posts need to transform in order to survive the fast changing communication landscape.

The only way to achieve such transformation is to embrace e-commerce and digital technologies in the postal sector,” he said. According to the Universal PostalUnion (UPU), 93 percent of the postal operators who responded to their Digital Postal Services Capacity Index survey this year are already offering digital postal services in one way or another, either on their own or in collaboration with development partners. “In that vein, our own postal sector should also take advantage of emerging technologies to diversify their operations by providing other services like e-government, e-commerce and e-finance services.

This is the only way to survival.As Posts transform, innovate and move to strategically reposition themselves in the rapidly changing communication landscape, POTRAZ will ensure that this is accompanied by good quality of service. To this end, the authority is working on the acquisition of a quality of service monitoring system to ensure that mail and packages take the recommended time to be delivered from sender to receiver,” Machengete added. The World Post Day is celebratedeach year on October 9, and was declared by the 1969 Universal Postal Congress in Tokyo as a means to mark the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union’s (UPU) creation in 1874.