KUALA LUMPUR: Pos Malaysia Bhd views Tricubes Bhd’s myemail project as a threat to its business and is planning to engage government entities, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), and Malaysia Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), to discuss the possibility of offering similar services, or to play a role in the initiative.
After the company AGM yesterday, Pos Malaysia’s managing director and chief executive Datuk Syed Faisal Albar said the national postal company had already made inroads into the business.
“We are in the delivery business, both physical and digital. We know that this (myemail project) will be a significant threat to the physical mail business. So we would like to understand this project and explore ways on how Pos Malaysia can play a role,” he said.
Pos Malaysia, he added, was already working on several e-commerce initiatives and had taken a cue from the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) to increase the use of e-government initiatives.
About two weeks ago, Tricubes announced that it had been selected to spearhead the provision of an email service for government agencies, to deliver email to subscribers. Each email could cost the government agency about 50 sen.
This 50 sen fee has come under fire from several parties.
On whether Pos Malaysia would have similar charges, Syed Faisal said a “win-win” situation would be sought where both Pos Malaysia and the government benefited.
“We do not want to cannibalise our physical mail. Whatever charges we propose are going to be reasonable… We need to find a sweet spot,” he said.
Last year, Pos Malaysia’s revenue from mail business amounted to about RM624 million, of which RM20 million came from handling government mail.
“The e-commerce business is getting bigger and bigger. The industry is a billion dollar industry and it is something that we don’t want to miss out on… If we don’t do anything, it will canablise our business,” Syed Faisal added.
While Syed Faisal is charting the direction of Pos Malaysia, DRB-Hicom Bhd, which recently won the bid to buy Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s 32.21% stake in the postal service company, has yet to come forward with any direction or plans.
“I believe Khazanah has formed a divestment panel comprising professionals and experts to evaluate the business plans. As far as Pos Malaysia is concerned, this is a shareholder matter,” he said.
He added that he did not know if DRB-Hicom plans to use the post office network to expand Bank Muamalat Bhd.
Syed Faisal also said no date had been set as to when the Postal Act would be amended for postal land to be converted for other uses. At present, the use to post office land comes under the Federal Land Commission Act, which limits the use to only postal activity.
Pos Malaysia has about 700 parcels of land all over the country, including sizable land in premium locations.
While Pos Malaysia grapples with various issues, its targeted revenue of RM1.17 billion for this year could be adversely impacted by higher fuel prices which make up about 15% of its total operating cost.
For FY10 ended December, Pos Malaysia posted a net profit of RM67.11 million on the back of RM1.01 billion in revenue.
Pos Malaysia ended trading at RM3.22 yesterday, gaining two sen.
Source: The Edge
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