Achievements in Science and Technology

The year 2000 witnessed the State Post Bureau's conscientious efforts in carrying out the strategy of "Prospering Post with Science and Technology", intensifying the reform in the system of postal science and technology, and promoting growth in this area. Two groups of new technology development projects (148 in all) were released, of which 39 are about the research on soft science, 79 about the supervision of standard and quality, and 30 about the development in science and technology in this year.

New Technology Development

We smoothly put an end to the final phase of work regarding the solution to the Y2K problem, which won for us the praise from the Ministry of Information Industry and the People's Bank of China. We finished the spreading program for the mail container's barcode label and the spreading program for barcode of registered mail with A.R., which laid a foundation for the label bar code of mail. The computerization of the system for postal audiovisual materials has been developed, and is now being spread nationwide. The trial of containerized mail transportation was a beneficial exploration, which afforded China Post valuable experience for the spreading of the technology on a large scale.

Researches on Standards

In this area, 76 standard-research projects were started, and 25 released. Many standards well supported the establishment and transformation of electronic post, electronic remittance, integrated computer network and financial computer network. These may include:

• standard of 185 Customer Service Center's requirements for business, technology, and the language used in voice navigation and service;
• standard of addressing the IP in postal integrated network and naming the field;
• standard of addressing the IP in postal financial computer network system;
• standard of service for the postage and philatelic products, the confidential and international service, the area center; and the department in charge of the production management of mail transportation;
• standard of the exchange data norm and application-layer protocol related to integrated computer network and electronic remittance, etc.

Researches on Soft Science

Many achievements in this area have been either consulted or applied by related departments. These achievements include Plan for Postal Development during the Tenth Five-Year Period of China, Plan for the development of Electronic Post, the Business Accounting Plan for the Whole Postal Network, the Solution to the Problem to be faced by China after its Entry Into the WTO, the Revising Plan for the Area Center, the Construction Programs for the Integrated Computer Network and the Damage-Tolerant Center of Financial Computer Network, etc. In addition, we finished the measure attestation, examination, and reexamination of the stationery quality control center of State Post Bureau. On the homepage of China Post, we opened the column "Science & Technology" to conduct scientific activities and research exchanges, and to issue emergency standards as well. We successfully held the first GB/T1.1 publicizing conference, during which the State Bureau of Quality and Technology Supervision awarded 69 people the qualification certificate of standardization issued. It was also a success that we took back the domain name of 183.com.cn, and joined in some related activities held during the Fourth International E-Business Conference.

Intensifying the Reform

With the official approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology and other five ministries and commissions, the Planning Institute of Postal Science of the State Post Bureau as a whole converted into a science-and-technology-oriented enterprise. Hunan Institute of Posts and Telecommunications Science was officially recomposed into a stock company, whose stock is expecting to come into the market.

As a result of the consultations held by China Post with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the State Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission and other parties concerned, 

• High-Speed Aerogram Machine YAM99A, Rubbing Bundling Machine YNUM6040, Automatic Posting Machine YJY-99, etc., were listed in the 2001 Key Spreading Project for State-Level Scientific Achievements;
• High-Speed Automatic Sorting System for Flat Mail was listed in the State-Level New Product Project;
• Researches on China Post's Universal Service Standard and Its Trend as well as China Post's Developing Strategy for the West were both listed in the State-Level Soft Science Research Program;
• Flexible Transporting System with Intellectual Power was listed in the State-Level Fund Project of Technological Innovation for Medium and Small Science-and-Technology-Oriented Enterprises; Research on China Post's E-Business Development Model was listed in the Key Task Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology.