JSC Ukrposhta plans to digitize 100% of its services in 2021.
“Ukrposhta is facing an ambitious task – during this year to make 100% digitalization of services,” Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy said during the “Ukraine 30. Infrastructure” forum.
According to Krykliy, this will be implemented due to the support of Ukraine’s international partners and almost 2,000 mobile rural branches that will be able to deliver parcels and will be involved in the e-commerce system.
According to Krykliy’s presentation, construction of five automated postal hubs and ten sorting depots is also planned this year.
The national postal operator Ukrposhta begins cooperation with the Kasta marketplace.
As reported by Ukrposhta on Tuesday, in December, the companies opened 50 partner offices.
Fitting rooms will be installed in co-branded post offices, where customers can check if the goods ordered on the Kasta marketplace fit them.
Partner offices will operate in Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv, Poltava, Lutsk, Vinnytsia, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, Mykolaiv, Severodonetsk, Kryvy Rih, Nikopol, Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr and other cities.
Delivery of goods purchased on the Kasta website to Ukrposhta partner offices will be free for holders of KastaBlack loyalty program cards, and in the absence of a card, the delivery will cost UAH 25 regardless of the amount and size of the order.
“According to payment systems, in Ukraine in the first quarter of 2020, the volume of e-commerce increased significantly, and merchants began to use digital channels for sales even more actively: the number of online payments in grocery retail increased by 12%, and in certain categories, such as appliances and electronics, the number of purchases on the Internet increased by 44%. We see this tendency in accordance with the increase in the volume of parcels. Therefore, we continue to expand the circle of our cooperation with the largest online stores,” Deputy Director General for business development of Ukrposhta Olena Stopina said.
“For our customers, the coverage and, accordingly, the delivery speed will expand. We do not plan to stop at 50 offices, we will actively develop this area of cooperation,” Head of the delivery service and the network of KastaPost offices Oleksandr Bilousov.
Ukrposhta has the largest office network in Ukraine, almost 11,000 post offices. The national postal operator delivers items even to the most remote settlements and covers 100% of the territory of Ukraine.
Kasta is a marketplace for clothes, shoes and accessories in Ukraine.
Ukrposhta expects to sign an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) in October to raise a EUR 100 million loan for the construction of new sorting centers.
“I really hope that on October 1 we will sign the first EUR 100 million agreement in the history of Ukrposhta for the construction of a new logistics network with the EBRD and the EIB and, in fact, we will start building a new Ukrposhta,” its CEO Igor Smelyansky said on the air of KSE Business Transformation Week “Transformational Leaders. Public Sector.”
He also recalled that Ukrposhta built the last sorting center in 1980 and noted that it is very difficult to compete with the market players such as Nova Poshta using such outdated equipment.
At the same time, according to Smelyansky, despite the quarantine, the company continues to grow in the volume of services provided.
As reported, in the spring, Ukrposhta hoped to attract EUR 100 million for the construction of new sorting centers by summer. The company later clarified to the Interfax-Ukraine agency the funds raised are planned to be used for the design and construction of three or four terminals, as well as for the automation of about 30 depots.
JSC Ukrposhta delivered 100,000 healthcare parcels in four months.
“Just now – tomorrow it will be public information – we have delivered the 100,000th parcel with medicines for four months. That is, from scratch we have collected 100,000 parcels of medicines delivered home,” said Ukrposhta CEO Igor Smelyansky on the air of KSE Business Transformation Week “Transformation Leaders. Public sector” platform.
He also informed that during quarantine, Ukrposhta opened more than 30 new branches and there are plans to launch 500 movable offices in seven regions by the end of the year.
“For the first time in history of Ukraine I would like to digitize the whole country, so that in every corner of the country, even in yet many places lacking mobile communication – it would be possible to provide digital banking services or track AliExpress orders. And this will come true not ‘someday’, but next September, after launching the last of 2,500 movable offices and, thus, we will be able to provide all these services both online and offline,” he stressed.
As previously reported, on March 23 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution amending the license terms for the production, wholesale and retail trade and import of medicines (except for active pharmaceutical ingredients). According to the resolution, Ukrposhta, along with other postal communication operators, can deliver medicines and related products to consumers.
The Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday intends to consider a bill on the list of 188 companies prohibited from privatization, according to the agenda of the government meeting. According to the text of the bill, the government allows the privatization of up to 50% of the shares of Naftogaz, Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukrposhta, but proposes to retain the state’s 100% share of corporate rights in National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom, PrJSC Ukrhydroenergo, NEC Ukrenergo , Skhidny Ore Mining and Processing Plant (VostGOK), and Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA).
It is also proposed to include the SE Market Operator and the SE Guaranteed Buyer, created by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2019 in order to ensure the operation of the new electricity market, in the list of objects completely prohibited for privatization.
In addition, it is proposed to include in the specified list the state-owned enterprise Document, Ukraina Printing Plant for the production of securities, Kyiv offset factory, and Pivdenne (Yuzhne) Design Bureau.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) could provide a senior sovereign-guaranteed loan of up to EUR 53 million for the acquisition and equipping of postal vans and for the development of modern automated sorting hubs in the cities of Kyiv, Lviv and Dnipro.
According to a report on the bank’s website, the project is pending approval of the bank’s board until September 30, 2020.
Tranche 1 of up to EUR 23 million is intended for the acquisition and equipping of postal vans to be deployed in rural areas across the country and Tranche 2 of up to EUR 30 million for the development of modern automated sorting hubs in the cities of Kyiv, Lviv and Dnipro and an associated network of regional sorting depots.
According to the EBRD, the total cost of the project is EUR 102 million, which includes EUR 53 million of EBRD loan, a EUR 30 million loan of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EIB) and own funds of Ukrposhta in the amount of EUR 19 million.
