Delegates from all Anglophone countries converged at the Paradise Suites Hotel for a five-day workshop on Express Mail Service (EMS) Co-operative ‘Caring for the Customer’ to strengthen the EMS system, which was recently launched.

Declaring the workshop open, Hon Lamin Bojang, the Minister of Works, Construction and Infrastructure, said the gathering is part of The Gambia government’s drive in liberalising the communications sector to enable all players to provide them better and more affordable services to the people of this country and by extension, to the world’s citizenry.

“The Gambia government is taking note of its achievements and we congratulate those concerned for the positive direction the corporation is taking”, he said. He thanked the Universal Postal Union (UPU), particularly, the Express Mail Service (EMS) Co-operative in meeting the challenges of EMS. He said as a late comer, it is an uphill task in rivaling the competition.

“But I am confident that with your knowledge and expertise in the area of mail circulation and delivery, you shall surpass the expectation of skeptics in a very short time. Continuous training is the answer,” he said.

According to him, EMS Co-operative encourages all member administrations to set delivery and service standards in the provision of the service. He noted that without standard, it would be difficult to measure success.

He implored the delegates to set high and realistic standards and invest more in customer service. “A satisfied clientele is a guarantee for success”, he said.

Momodou A. Ceesay, the Managing Director of Gampost, said there were delegates from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Botswana, Ghana, Liberia, Tanzania, Namibia and Kenya. He admonished the gathering that he was more than willing to approve the postal meeting on EMS in The Gambia.

Wang Tongju, a board member of EMS Co-operative of Universal Postal Union from China, said with the rapid development of the internet, the world is closely connected. EMS, he said “as one of the main conveyors needs a more worldwide network between EMS Co-operative members to meet the requirement of the market and face the more competitive market than before”.