Yemen�s modern postal service: An interview with Mohammed Murghem

SANA�A - The General Post Authority has several responsibilities beyond just delivering the mail. For instance, it offers the postal savings service and also distributes retired people�s pensions through its branches all over the country. We spoke with Mr. Mohammed Murghem, General Manager of the Post Authority, who spoke about the achievements and plans of Yemen�s modern postal service.

Q: What are your new plans to improve the General Post Authority?
A: The activities of the Authority lately have lain in two major areas: local and international. Domestically, we are focusing this year on increasing the number of post offices to lower crowdedness. These centers need to be equipped, and we are going to receive computers later, which will assist us in our work.

We are trying to introduce a new service, that is, current accounts. The targeted people are government officers who are not yet retired. Last year, the Authority carried out a test project to pay the salaries of the General Telecommunications Authority. It was a successful attempt, which has encouraged us to discuss with the Ministry of Education the possibility of paying teachers� salaries through our branches. This needs infrastructure, and this is why we are building post offices in Sana�a, provincial capitals, and even districts not currently covered by us.

Other services are being improved like money orders and postal savings. We are visiting schools to introduce the latter service and its advantages for students, family wage-earners, and all age groups in society.

Q: What about on an Arab level?
A: We have exchanged successful experiences with other Arab countries. The Electronic Riyal introduced by the Authority is the fruit of Yemeni-Tunisian cooperation, for example. The Electronic Riyal is an electronic service that aims at involving post offices in disseminating awareness regarding how to deal with the Internet via the website: www.post.ye

Through it, one can reach the Electronic Riyal website where they can pay their water, telephone, and electricity bills. You register your telephone number for telephone bills, or your counter number for water and electricity bills, and pay your bills through the Electronic Riyal service. Launched last September, the service has been growing noticeably.

Currently, we are trying to make use of the UAE�s experience in postal services and their automation. We are coordinating with them so as to improve postal services.

Q: Does modern telecommunications technology affect your service?
A: It does, of course, provide positive and negative influences. The negative impact is that people have started abandoning the conventional postal service. They now use the internet to send their messages.

Yet the post office is still very important to send original documents, which are necessary sometimes. Parcels and goods are also sent by conventional mail. The conventional post office is not threatened with extinction, but it has been affected, no doubt.

The Internet is a beneficial source of information for us. Our monetary services have been introduced on websites, and this is a great service which gets done in no time.

Q: What other services has the Post Authority introduced?
A: You know that a letter is a portable advertisement. We have issued postage stamps bearing historic and cultural images. They also bear images of distinctive national personalities. They serve to popularize Yemen in other countries and promote its civilized cultural heritage. This, in turn, will yield its fruits to our country.

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