The FINANCIAL — From 2-4 October, “Georgian Post” hosted PostEurop’s 34th Plenary Assembly and “Business Innovation Forum”. Within the framework of the scheduled events, the Head of 52 European Operations Officers of 49 European countries visited Georgia. The session’s focus was on postal reforms, challenges, development plans of postal directions, and the possibilities of strengthening partnerships between members.
“In 2015, PostEurop decided that the Plenary Assembly of 2018 would be held in Tbilisi. It is noteworthy that 2018 is the 25 year anniversary for PostEurop, which makes this decision even more significant. The basis for the decision to hold the Plenary Assembly in Georgia was that 2015 had been a turning year in the history of the Georgian postal system and as a result Georgian Post received the status of the fastest growing postal operator,” Levan Chikvaidze, General Director of Georgian Post, told The FINANCIAL.
The Plenary Assembly, which is an annual event, was followed (as is tradition) by the Business Innovations Forum, where more than 100 international organizations involved in the postal business participated. Companies presented innovative projects and visions related to the postal business and logistics. In the current year, “Business Innovation Forum” brought together the most interesting postal startups. Among them were successful companies who work in e-commerce, artificial intelligence, automation and digital marketing.
“In the postal business and development process, innovations are very important. At this time, as before, Estonia still leads in terms of innovation. At the forum, Georgian businesses were represented together with different countries, where they were given the potential and ability to implement their ideas.”
I am sure that the projects presented in Tbilisi this year will be successful for many representatives themselves. Our goal was for Georgian innovators to have the opportunity to talk to experienced foreign representatives, to establish future ties, and I think that they successfully used this opportunity,” Chikvaidze said.
At the Business Innovation Forum Georgian Post presented an electronic platform called “Georgian Product to World”.
“The product that we have introduced is targeted at an online platform and online market. As a result Georgian entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to place local products in the e-shop through our platform. Customers will be able to not only visualize the product but also purchase online; define the preferred delivery option; calculate the price; and in the event of a purchase, Georgian Post will provide delivery to the any destination in the world,” Chikvaidze told The FINANCIAL.
Issues of social responsibility were discussed at the first day of the Plenary Assembly too. This is a universal postal service. One of the globally-recognized human rights according to the United Nations is to be able to receive information, and World Postal Union, one of the oldest international organizations, is the guardian of this rule. Of course, PostEurop is controlling how well the responsibilities that the countries have to one another are actually carried out.
According to Chikvaidze, Georgia is in the leading place based on the data of 2018: in 10th place among the top 10 countries of Europe, after Great Britain. In terms of quality assessment and 3 quarter data, we are in second place in the world and in first place in Europe in EMS transfers. All of this also formed the basis for the decision made by PostEurop members to hold the Plenary Assembly in Georgia, and this is what made us successfully accomplish and execute the events.
“Very high-ranking individuals were present at the plenary assembly and forum: Chairman of the World Postal Union, and his deputy, Head of the African Union. They had meetings with the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. The Chairman of the World Postal Union spoke to the Minister about all the success that, he was saying, had not been expected of Georgian Post in such a short time. However, it was also noted that these achievements only became possible after our willingness to share world best practices. Then it was dependent on our skills, how quickly and effectively we were able to implement what we had learned,” he said.
It is noteworthy that during these days, very interesting B2B meetings were held, where some future prospects for Georgian Post were discussed. General Director of Georgian Post, Levan Chikvaidze, met with the Director of Turkish Post. Turkey is considered one of the most powerful operators worldwide. At the meeting, the Turkish side expressed their intention to develop more closer cooperation, and further intensification of relations and development of a neighbourhood policy.
The Director of Georgian Post said that the main directions of the meeting were logistics and IT. “The logistics network, which Turkey controls, extends to Georgia, so it is very convenient for us to use Turkey in terms of logistics. By the end of the month, an action plan should be prepared which the jointly created teams will work on,” he said.
A second B2B meeting was held with the Polish side, which is willing to restore the Silk Road. The memorandum is planned to be elaborated. This proposal from Poland reaffirms that interest in our country and location is growing more and more.
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