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The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Paul Tang, visited the Central Mail Centre (CMC) of Hongkong Post in Kowloon Bay today (September 17) to learn more about the work of the department and to take the opportunity to meet its staff.
Accompanied by the Permanent Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Raymond Wong, Mr Tang first met with the Postmaster General, Mrs Jessie Ting, and directorate staff. Mr Tang was pleased to learn that Hongkong Post strives to provide affordable postal and related services of good quality to the local community. In addition to conventional postal services, Hongkong Post has diversified its service offerings to meet constantly evolving customer needs.
The CMC is a new, integrated mail sorting centre to house the International Mail Centre(IMC) previously located in Hung Hom and the sorting office at the General Post Office in Central. The relocation to the new facility is being carried out in phases and will be completed by the end of 2014. A dedicated team has been formed to ensure a seamless migration to the new site across all aspects of operations.
Mr Tang started with a tour of the department's Bulk Mail Acceptance Counter under the Retail Business Division, where he was briefed by departmental staff on the streamlined posting arrangements for bulk mailers and the new Integrated Postal Services System (IPSS). The IPSS, which automates counter operations and improves integration of front-end operations with back-end workflow, is being rolled out in stages.
Mr Tang then visited the Indoor Section, the Sorting Section and the Mechanised Letter Sorting System Section under the Mail Processing Division. He noted that machines with state-of-the-art technology have been installed in the Centre. The upgraded postal system comprises two types of letter sorting machines - 12 Optical Video-coding Integrated Systems and three Culler Facer Cancellers (CFCs) that handle standard and non-standard mail items respectively. While the older generation of CFCs could only carry out stamp recognition and cancelling functions, the new generation of CFCs is capable of address recognition and letter sorting as well, thus further enhancing the efficiency of mail processing.
Before concluding his visit, Mr Tang met with staff representatives of various grades at a tea gathering to exchange views on relevant issues. He encouraged the staff to continue offering their high-quality, efficient and professional services to the public.
Ends/Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:40
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