The year 2002 saw the convening of the first National Postal Tele-Conference on Standardization, and the forming of leading group for standardization work in both the SPB and the provincial-level bureaus. Therefore, a breakthrough has been made in the management of standardization and quality control. The year witnessed the release of 34 standards, which involved the image project and physical delivery network, the integrated computer network as well as the electronic remittance project, etc., and which supported the project construction effectively. Standardization has been publicized in an increasingly intensifying manner, and 16 standards on the logo of postal image and the integrated computer network has been successively publicized and carried out. The current standards have been reviewed in an all round way. The management of quality control has been reinforced, and its related regulations have been released. The quality of envelops and EMS covers has been supervised and inspected, and the two quality control centers of postal stationery and equipment for mail processing of SPB have been authorized to operate.

All together 43 projects concerning soft science and technological development were fulfilled in 2002. A passel of significant and influential achievements have been made for the benefit of postal technological progress and business development. Among them, the "demonstration on the overall solution for the integrated computer network" has found keys to such important problems as the technical system involved in the next-step expansion and transformation of the integrated computer network, the solution for security and disaster recovery, the new solution and planning for the application system of logistics, thus providing basis for the establishment of the project of expanding and transforming the network; The "network sorting technology", which was a success in its trial and passed the approval in the Shanghai EMS center, has initiated a new mode for mail sorting technology in the information era, and has reached the advanced level in the international postal sector. It can realize automatic sorting, invoice and way-bill printing, weighing and real-time single postage checking by reading automatically the ID barcode on the mail item and searching such information as the office of destination from the info-net, thus realizing veritably the merging of physical distribution and information exchange. The new product, "high-speed franking machine", which owns independent intellectual property and meets the needs of the DM development in our country, has passed approval and filled in the gaps domestically in the field of high-speed DM processing, thus reaching advanced level in the country. The project of "technology research on the postcode and address verification by Chinese character recognition", has passed approval, and reached the advanced level both at home and abroad. This technology can increase the rate of letter automatic identification to over 80%, and decrease the error rate by around 30%, thus bearing evident social effect and economic returns. A passel of soft science achievements have been applied to practice and have gained good results.

Besides, the National Scientific and Technological Knowledge Contest for Postal Employees, which was held during the "Technological Activity Week", was successfully carried out and attended by 120 thousand employees; 9 projects have been listed into the national technical innovation project, the 10th five-year key scientific and technological project, the key scientific and technological achievement spreading project, and the innovation fund project for medium and small-sized enterprises, helping to build up the influence of postal science and technology.

　　China Postal Academy

China Postal Academy, one of the subordinates of the State Post Bureau, is mainly involved in the research on the decision-making and development of postal facilities and postal information technology. With 382 professionals (including 267 junior and senior technicians) among the total 618 employees, China Postal Academy undertakes the responsibility to promote the modernization of postal services by utilizing the science and technology. Great achievements have been made in the study and research on the postal development strategy, economic policy, business operation, planning of the postal routes, information consultation and the standards for postal technology. It provides China Post with substantial supports in terms of the science and technology. In order to suit to the requirements of postal development and system reform of scientific institutions, China Postal Academy was transformed into a high-tech company from a public institution in 2002. New companies were established after restructuring, namely China Postal Science & Technology Consulting Company, China Postal Science & Technology Logistics Company, China Postal Science & Technology Information Company and its branch in Shanghai.