World Post Day was celebrated on Sunday to raise awareness on the role of postal service in everyday life of people and businesses.
World Post Day is celebrated each year on October 9. The event was declared by the 1969 Universal Postal Congress in Tokyo as a means to mark the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union's (UPU) creation in 1874.
The purpose of World Post Day is to bring awareness to the post's role in the everyday lives of people and businesses, as well as its contribution to global social and economic development.
The UPU helps facilitate awareness with its World Post Day by designing and distributing posters for display across the globe. In 2016, the UPU launched a new poster for the 2016–2018 period.
Although World Post Day is not guided by a particular theme, the UPU's latest poster design embodies the UPU's three strategic pillars: innovation, integration and inclusion.
In the Maldives, Postal service was introduced in 1906. Back then, the service was mainly used as a means of communication throughout the country. The service enabled island-to-island communication and connected the Maldives to other countries. The government also used the service to communicate with foreign governments.
With the introduction of telephone service and internet, the number of people using postal service for communication rapidly decreased, and today the postal service as a means of communication has become almost obsolete.
Yet, the importance of the service has increased with the rise of e-commerce and online shopping. The service also remains a trusted method of transferring currency.
Maldives Post Limited, which is one of the oldest organisations in the country, processes around 3,000 to 5,000 packages and boxes on a daily basis. These packages are distributed through Maldives Post Limited’s head office and its branches in Velaanaage’ and Hulhumale’.
Director of Business Development and Marketing at Maldives Post Limited Aiminath Sharulaa said “the company is working on opening additional post offices in Male’ City to cater to the rising demand.”
Some of the new services introduced by the Maldives Post include E-Tukuri which allows Maldivians to buy goods from United States and China more conveniently while its Express Money Service allows people to send money to other countries more quickly and securely.
Some of the services introduced to the world centuries ago have now been obsolete, yet Post Service has evolved with time and is even today as important a service as it was centuries ago.