DOHA: A separate company that will offer mailroom, networking and express mail services to corporate clients in Qatar is proposed to be established by the General Postal Corporation (Q-Post), chairman Ali Mohammad Al Ali, said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters, Ali revealed that Q-Post was now trying to bag as many corporate clients, organisations and banks, among others, as customers for its mailroom, networking and express mail services, since the corporation expects the monopoly that the Qatari law accords it to end in future.
He said, Q-Post's monopoly in such services would have to end under the World Trade Organisation's clauses for member states, such as Qatar.
However, the WTO and the Switzerland-based Universal Postal Union (UPU), the international regulatory authority for postal services, had yet to decide on a cut-off date when the WTO's member states would have to open up the sector for more players. The chairman had earlier said that Q-Post was also aiming to go public in future and hence, aimed at becoming a commercially profitable organisation.
Ali said that Q-Post was currently negotiating an agreement with a major private courier company to offer a joint venture product to clients in Qatar. He pointed out that the corporation was facing stiff competition in express mail services from large, globally renowned players such as DHL Worldwide Express, FedEx and TNT, among others and a strategic partnership that would be announced shortly, would give Q-Post an edge in the market.
Q-Post currently has mailroom and networking as well as express mail handling agreements with the Doha Bank, Commercialbank, Al Jazeera Channel, Supreme Council for Environment and Natural Reserves, the Retirement and Pensions General Authority and Dolphin Energy Ltd, while another with the Qatar National Bank is in the pipeline. Under these agreements, Q-Post staff are deployed at the head offices of these clients who pack and forward all internal, external and international as well as express mail.
© The Peninsula 2005
