Post office to be privatised

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 October 1998, 20:38 GMT]
Sri Lankan government's Postal Department will be made a public corporation by early next year, Mr. Mangala Samaraweera, Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Media announced today.

He said that the World Bank has given 28 million US Dollars towards the reorganising the department into a corporation.

Of this, according to the Minister, 14 million USD will be spent on a "Post Office Automation Program" under which 54 post offices in the country will be modernised.

The Postal Dept. is one of the largest govt. sector employers. Powerful postal workers unions have been resisting attempts by the government to push the dept. on the road to privatisation under pressure from the World Bank and the International Monitory Fund (IMF).

Postal Union sources said the move to make the postal department a public corporation is a step towards privatising the postal services.

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