China Postal Bureau to Play Big Role in E-Commerce

The State Postal Bureau (SPB) Wednesday signed agreements with 14 companies, include Dell and Haier, to provide e-commerce logistic services for them.

Experts noted that this move indicates that the bureau has made a decision to play a major role in the burgeoning e-commerce business.

Liu Liqing, director of the SPB, told a seminar Wednesday that the logistics network of the bureau is the country's biggest and best. He promised that his company will make every effort to play an active role in e-commerce development.

The SPB has 236 large delivery centers across the country, linking more than 2,300 cities and counties. Besides, its mailing trunk line links all the cities in the country, and is connected with more than 200 countries.

To provide better services, the company has invested to expand its mailing network this year, enabling the network to deliver parcels directly to customers.

According to a plan, the company will be able to deliver parcels to all administrative units down to the county level from October 1 this year.

Liu noted that the bureau also has its own information dealing platform. It has opened an e-commerce website "183" and a customer service center "185" to provide Internet and phone-in service. The postage deposit "Green Card" also provides on-line settlement service, and is considered to be the solution to one of the biggest bottlenecks in e-commerce.

People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/