Malawi wants UPU seat

GOVERNMENT

By Gregory Gondwe, Blantyre, Malawi

The Government of Malawi says it would like to take a seat in the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Council of Administration (CA) as this will help bolster the country’s ICT stand on global stage.

“We stand a chance of being part of policy formulation which will give us first hand information and advantage on new innovations in the Information Communication Technology and Postal world,” said Malawi government spokesperson Moses Kunkuyu, who is also Information and Civic Education Minister.

Kunkuyu said a seat on UPU Council of Administration is crucial as it is the main policy formulation and implementation body in as far as postal issues are concerned.

Malawi which attempted but failed to get a seat on the UPU Council of Administration five years ago is set to have another go when the organisation will be having a summit slated for Doha, Qatar from September 24 to October 15, 2012.

Malawi expressed its wish to seat in the council at a Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) conference in Addis Ababa last month.

At the summit Malawi hopes to be amongst 41 member countries who seat at the council although host countries do get automatic seat and also gets the chairmanship and automatically this goes to Qatar as Congress Host.

Kunkuyu also says the seat would open up employment opportunities at the world body for Malawians, in addition to training opportunities and international exposure.

Malawi failed to get a seat five years ago because the government did not lobby for support from other states.