The nation’s largest postal firm is tapping further into the “stay-at-home economy,” Chunghwa Post chairman Philip Ong (翁文祺) said yesterday, adding that the company would cease retail sales of a majority of its third-party products at post offices by the end of this year.
Ong made the comments at a ceremony marking the nation’s Postal Day and the company’s 118th anniversary.
Ong said the company would expand its online shopping businesses for stay-at-home customers by integrating all the resources it has, including cash and information flow, 1,300 post offices and its logistics network.
“To distinguish ourselves from online shopping sites like Yahoo and PC Home, we are focusing on the online sale of Taiwan’s creative cultural goods as well as its agricultural products, which usually lack channels for marketing and do not come in large quantities,” he said.
Ong said Chunghwa Post would help promote the Taiwanese products to the world via the company’s Post Mall, which would be linked to shopping sites of postal firms in China and Japan.
Ong also commented on the possibility of Chunghwa Post merging with government-funded financial institutions.
“Chunghwa Post offers services in 319 towns nationwide, including some on outlying islands. They provide people with postal, savings account and life insurance services. The safety net created by Chunghwa Post simply cannot be replicated by other profit-oriented financial institutions,” he said. “The social services provided by Chunghwa Post are more important than the profits it generates.”
“We have about 9,000 mail carriers who accomplish their tasks daily, rain or shine,” Ong said. “Some of them even volunteer to take care of elderly people who live alone.”
“The value of these services cannot be conveyed through balance sheets,” he added.
Ong said the postal company was never founded to make a profit.
The company may have lost money through its delivery service, but the losses can be thought of as advertising expenditure for Chunghwa Post, he said.
Lee Kan-hsiang (李甘祥), director of Chunghwa Post’s department of mail business and operations, said the company hoped that customers would start buying products through the company’s shopping Web site instead.
Lee said that the company gained about NT$2 billion (US$65.2 million) through the retail sale of third-party products.
Lee said that half of Chunghwa Post’s revenue was earned through the sale of third-party goods, such as skincare products.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai