Ministry submits Russian Post development strategy to 2018
MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - The Communications Ministry submitted a draft strategy for the development of state company Russian Post and the country's postal services sector to 2018 to the government on Monday.
The strategy was submitted by the deadline specified by the government, Deputy Communications Minister Mikhail Yevrayev told Interfax.
The draft strategy will now be discussed at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, which has not been scheduled yet, Yevrayev said and a spokesperson for Dvorkovich confirmed. A source familiar with the situation said the meeting could be held next week.
Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov said at the end of September that the new strategy calls for incorporating Russian Post and preserving it as a unified company. "The scenario of spinning off logistics is not being considered," he said. The ministry considered spinning off the logistics business into a separate company at the beginning of the year, but later abandoned the idea.
"There are now subsidies for the Post in the strategy, the emphasis is on internal sources and viable business cases," the minister said.
The government "cannot provide 100 billion rubles for modernization like the company's former management asked, so it faces the challenge of finding internal sources of financing," Nikiforov said.
The most important part of the strategy, he said, is development of logistics, so that Russian Post can keep up with the growth of online retail sales and the constantly growing flow of packages and international mail.
Russian Post will not set up a bank, but following incorporation it will obtain a banking license in order to be able to provide a "basic selection of the simplest financial services" and earn additional income from them, Nikiforov said, adding that such services would include opening personal accounts for provision of online government services, deposits and making transit payments.
"It will not be a bank, but will provide a number of financial services under its own banking license. Perhaps, the license will be obtained by a subsidiary of Russian Post," the minister said.
He said that 45% of Russia's population lives in towns of fewer than 50,000 residents, and 31 million people live in towns with fewer than 10,000 residents. "There aren't any banks there at all," Nikiforov said.
Russian Post has 42,000 post offices and annually handles more than 1.5 billion letters, 48 million packages and 113 million money transfers. The company's revenue grew 5.1% year-on-year to 64.8 billion rubles in the first half of 2013. The company posted a net profit of 154.7 million rubles, compared to a loss of 552.7 million rubles a year earlier.