Section 2 A Full Program on Post Department Construction

During the period of "8th Five-Year Plan" i.e, the first half of 1990s, reform and modernization construction entered a new important developing stage. According to Deng Xiaoping's theory of constructing socialism with Chinese features, 14th NCCPC Put forward the tentative plan of establishing new system of socialistic market economy and accelerating national economy modernization, which injected new vitality in the socialistic construction of China. This situation raised higher and greater requirements for post. Competition in post market was getting intenser. To solve the serious problems merged in post construction under the new situation, from Oct. 14 to Oct. 18, 1992, MPT held the National Post Conference and gained active and fruitful achievements.

A. MPT clearly recognized the situation and difficulties of post and was determined to accelerate post development, solving a set of key problems that had affected the development of post industry. MPT leaders pointed out that, as the basic facility of national economy and pre-requisite of open up policy, post was in "battle neck" situation. The contradiction of the increasing social requirements for post business and the deficient processing ability was still the main contradiction that post faced. Therefore, MPT and the Post Administration Bureau in each province, autonomous region and city should plan as a whole to ensure the investment in post construction and support post development.

B. lt confirmed developing goal of post industry in 1990s. The situation of post market had changed a lot. It mainly manifested in the transition from seller's market in the post to buyer's market and the transition of some business from monopoly to competition. Competition in some business market was very intense with great pressure. MPT decided to greatly enforce communication ability, change the backward situation of post, promote post modernization, improve post transportation ability, enforce integrated communication ability of the whole network and try hard to realize the requirements of "3 transitions" put forward in 1990. By the end of this century, MPT would established independent express post delivery main line network, all levels of central offices with high mechanical and automatic processing abilities and computer processing network widely used in operation, production, and management, forming the post network with reasonable distribution, advanced technologies, full functions, rapid and convenience, which basically fitted for the development of socialistic market economy and requirements for post of people in well-to-do living level.

C. Put forward the new concept of further emancipating the mind, and building up market economy. Firstly, to build up the concept of energetical progress, accelerating development and developing in advance. Secondly, to develop business to make progress and profit in the competitions according to market requirements. Thirdly, to start from higher point, adopt new technologies to actively promote post technology progress. Fourthly, to build up the concept that time limit was the main line of post communication. The development of post ability, technical modification, network optimization, operation management enforcement should all be centered on the main line of accelerating time efficiency. To change the problem of slow delivery should be taken as the major problem of post transportation and internal operation.

D. Actively carry out central office system, establishing express post transportation mainline network, to enforce communication ability. Take first-grade (equivalent to region), second-grade (equivalent to provincial capital) and third--grade (equivalent to city) central offices as the mail distributing and . processing center as well as the node of organizing post network. All mails in the post district would be processed in the central office. Thus several thousands of mail processing units in the post were replaced by over 200 central offices. In post delivery organization, it put forward the method to change the transportation method of mainly by train in the past, to develop air post transportation, set up special air postal route, set up air post transportation company, energetically establish independent express post transportation mainline network with combination of self-operation and trust-operation with integrated utilization of airlines, trucks and railways. During the period of "sib Five-Year Plan", it would complete the construction and technical modification of provincial post hubs and important exchange offices, greatly increase productive buildings and rural post-offices, accelerate technical modification of post communication, promote the mechanization and automatic construction of communication network, forming intercommunication computer system.

This conference depicted the magnificent blue print of post modernization development in 1990s. It put forward new objectives, new concepts, new ideas and new measures and had an magnificent meaning and deep effect in the history of post development of China, which was appreciated by post departments, especially post-staff. After the conference, the whole post was strenuous and in good situation. To carry out the spirit of the conference, fulfil developing objectives and tasks, post administration bureau in each province, autonomous region and city carried out preferential policy for post in arrangement, technical modification, training and investment, which greatly promoted post construction and development. By the end of 1993, the statistics showed that the overal turnover reached 8.03 billion Yuan, up 24.7% compared with last year. Mail and parcel business increased 20.2% and 27.5% respectively comparing to that of the last year. EMS, stamp collecting and postal savings all increased greatly. Post income was 8.24 billion Yuan, increasing 37. l% comparing to that of the last year. Business quantity and income reached its best historical level. In 1992 and 1993, productive building increased l,300,000 m2, 3,500 post offices were added. The total number of post offices reached over 57,000. Technical level of the whole network improved a lot. The imported mail sorting equipment of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou operated normally. The installation of newly imported mail sorting equipment was accelerated. Post mechanization ability was enforced. Computers were widely used in post delivery operation. Post delivery radio control system had been put into use. National computer system of newspaper and periodical issue was primarily established. The "Green Card Engineering" accelerated. Tracing inquiring of EMS was realized in 48 large and middle-size cities.

With the deepening of the spirit of the national post conference, and the deepening of market economy system, leaders of post departments clearly recognized the pressure of intense competition in post market and that post should face the market, enter the market, develop new post business according to market requirements. Especially enlightened by the industrialized and commercialized operation of post in developed countries, they improved their understanding of developing post market. In 1993, 1994, according to the 3 topics of "development, reform and service" put forward by MPT, post department put forward the main idea of "facing the market, opening new field and developing post" which made post the composition of the 3 major channels of "information circulation", "material circulation" and "capital circulation" under the condition of socialistic market economy, to serve for national economy department, for deepening reform, enlarging opening, and for national economy informationization. Post department in each area actively carried out this guideline, to open up market, lead the market, modify internal operation organization, improve services, improve integrated service level, accelerate the construction of post services, develop agencies, solve the problems of mail delivery in counties. In the post offices of large and middle cities, computers were widely used to gradually realize integrated electronic services. Gradually improve service level, improve business coverage and market coverage, which greatly prompted the development of post network construction and post business development, and gained great achievements. By the end of 1994, it fulfilled post development Program of "sib Five-Year Plan" one year ahead of schedule. It realized the aim 6 years ahead of schedule to increase communication abilities, post turnover and post income by 3 times from 1980 to 2000.