Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: The Egyptian National Postal Authority... and the Japan Post Bank

The first postmarks of the Egyptian Postal Authority were issued in October 1864, after Khedive Ismail purchased the private European postal company, and the first Egyptian postage stamp was issued in 1866.

Its name was changed to the "Postal Authority" by Presidential Decree No. "710" of 1957, and the National Postal Authority was then established by Law No. "19" of 1982.

The number of its offices has reached more than ten thousand, spread throughout the Republic to provide postal services in addition to investing the deposits of the savings fund.

The Authority has been distinguished by high rates of accumulated annual financial losses and, consequently, a poor level of services; at the end of 2013 the Authority's losses stood at about 436.3 million Egyptian pounds.

As for the Japanese postal authority, it was founded in 1875, that is, ten years after the Egyptian Postal Authority. It belongs to the public sector, as is the case with the post in Egypt. At first, the people of rural Japan turned to it to deposit their small savings in order to benefit from its high returns, which were exempt from taxes and fees.

The postal authority in Japan developed into a bank that accepts credit cards and foreign withdrawal cards at bank ATMs, as well as international services, through more than 26,000 ATMs in post offices across Japan. Stickers are placed at every location indicating the types of credit cards accepted, in cooperation with Seven Bank, and services are provided 24 hours a day throughout Japan in several languages: "English, Korean, Chinese and Portuguese".

In 2012, after Shinzo Abe was elected Prime Minister, a tremendous leap took place, represented by the Japan Post Bank unveiling a new, wide-ranging strategy, after 10 years had passed in reorganizing the postal authority and dividing it into four entities: "banking, insurance, mail and customer services".

Great controversy arose in popular and party circles in Japan before the shares of the Japanese postal authority were offered to increase capital in the largest privatization Japan has undertaken, as the total assets of the life insurance company "Kampo" exceeded one hundred and fourteen trillion yen, equivalent to about nine hundred and ninety billion US dollars, which is more than the assets of the other major Japanese insurance companies.

The Japan Post Bank has become the largest commercial retail bank in the world, with assets estimated at about 3.25 trillion dollars and income reaching 785 billion dollars. Japan Post has also become a symbol of efficiency and of public sector management in Japan, and local banks are trying to raise their capacity and efficiency to catch up with the postal giant in Japan's banking market.

Some have gone so far as to say that communications technology and smartphones have affected postal services: text messages instead of telegrams, social media instead of letters, and money transfers instead of postal money orders. However, the success story of the Japan Post Bank refutes these ideas, and it is therefore wrong to rely on such matters to justify the losses of the Egyptian post.

We believe that the Egyptian National Postal Authority will only succeed by relying on modern management and scientific planning and by giving room to young people and innovation to achieve its goals, away from routine or haphazardness, while re-examining the sum of 17 billion pounds that is scheduled to be spent on restructuring wages and upgrading 420 offices, with no mention of human resource development or training employees in management innovation. We propose studying the establishment of an Egyptian Post Bank, with its capital formed through the merger of Banque du Caire and the Arab Bank, or either of them, with the possibility of offering a percentage of the shares to pensioners and investing their funds as well, away from the stock exchange, not only to preserve them but to maximize profits and raise the efficiency of postal services, by virtue of special legislation.