| Rokiah Mahmud |
AS THE world transitions into the digital economy and Fourth Industrial Revolution era, the country’s postal services must factor in technology into every aspect of its operations.
Digital technology, for instance, is playing an ever-increasing role in influencing our thoughts, lifestyles, as well as the way we communicate and work.
The matter was highlighted by Minister of Communications Dato Seri Setia Awang Abdul Mutalib bin Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Setia Dato Paduka Haji Mohammad Yusof in his address during the World Postal Day celebrations held at the Mail Processing Centre (MPC), Berakas yesterday.
In his speech, the minister added that the technological revolution has brought advancements in a range of areas, including the creation and distribution of data via technology such as the Internet of Everything (IoE), digitisation, mobile devices, big data, analytics and cloud computing.
High technologies, he said, can open up a broad range of markets and services for businesses and consumers, and make functional processes and transactions easier and faster.
“The world’s postal services are not being left behind in this technological revolution. In terms of the potential of the online business market, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study, the Asia-Pacific region is the largest contributor to global e-commerce market growth, particularly for business-to-consumer (B2C) segments,” Dato Seri Setia Awang Abdul Mutalib said.
Reports from Google and Temasek Holdings – a Singapore government investment company – further stated that the Southeast Asian digital market could reach a value of over USD200 billion by 2025.
The findings added that the Asean region, with a population of more than 640 million and a fast-growing annual Internet penetration rate, is expected to hold huge potential for e-commerce development.
Adding weight to these projections with a local example, the minister said according to the E-Commerce Survey for Consumers in Brunei Darussalam 2018 Report conducted by the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI), out of 1,000 people surveyed, approximately seven out of 10 have used e-commerce services in the country.
This trend of increasing business digitisation in the country, the minister said, is expected to continue, adding that the area “has more potential to be developed further”.
The phenomenon is also supported by data recorded by the Postal Services Department from 2000 to 2017, which showed a decline in physical letters sent – from 14.7 million in 2000 to 6.6 million in 2017.
However, the number of packages delivered has seen a consistent increase since 2010 – for example the total number packages delivered in 2017 was 540,000, a 100 per cent increase from the 2010 figure of 220,000.
“This is down to the development of – and increase in – e-commerce and online businesses,” said the minister.
Touching on the Postal Services Department’s corporatisation efforts, the minister noted that the department is currently going through a rebranding overhaul and introducing more innovation in its services to give better services to customers.
“At the same time, the department also needs to explore strategic collaborations with potential partners. We need to be integrated and holistic by engaging with various parties such as government-linked companies (GLCs), private sector bodies and higher education institutions,” he said.
“Currently the Postal Services Department is actively inking cooperation agreements with various stakeholders. Among the things that need to be considered include the preparation of business strategy plans and asset valuation reports towards our corporatisation goals.”