The Tunisian post office, La Poste Tunisienne, has found a way of speeding up deliveries of products purchased in Tunisia or in the countries in North and South America.
The company has a partnership with the Brazilian subsidiary of Federal Express (Fedex), which is responsible for shipping Tunisian products to countries in the region.
“The benefits of this partnership are the ease and speed of import and export, in distribution and cooperation between Brazil and Tunisia,” stated the president of La Poste Tunisienne, Elhaj Gley, who was in São Paulo last week participating so as to advertise the work executed by his company.
The partnership between both companies began in 1999.
“The products shipped can reach Brazil in two days,” stated Gley.
La Poste Tunisienne also has partnerships with courier businesses DHL and DPD, both from Germany, and with other private companies from Europe and Africa.
Gley stated that the Tunisian post is famous for its technology and services. According to him, the company works on weekends, offers online bill payment and graduate courses on the Internet.
He hopes to be able to share the new experience in electronic solutions developed in Tunisia with Brazil.
“Three months ago we developed a new information and communications service,” explained Gley, referring to a series of electronic services that range from Internet access to a virtual university.
He discussed the theme at the Latin American E-Business Forum, which ended on Friday, November 5, in the southeastern Brazilian city of São Paulo.
One of the electronic solutions that La Poste offers to companies from Tunisia is “Track and Trace”, which permits Internet tracking of products shipped to any country.
Another service is “Web Telegram”, which permits Tunisian companies to send documents by e-mail.
The mail company receives the e-mail, processes it, prints it, puts it in an envelope, and sends it to the destination.
Payment of bills can also be done electronically by means of a virtual pre-paid card, which may be used by people who have or don’t have bank accounts, as if it were a postal account.
According to Gley, there is also a system for money transfer to other cities in the country and abroad. “The transfer takes seconds,” he said.
One of the electronic solutions that is working out is e-learning, also developed by La Poste, which counts on 60 university courses, among them Law, Computer Science and Business Administration.
This virtual university is used by over one thousand Tunisian students, and is also recognized by 50 African countries.
By post or not, bilateral trade between Brazil and Tunisia is on the rise.
Between January and October this year, Brazil has exported the equivalent to US$ 95.4 million to the Arab country, against US$ 44.1 million in the same period last year.
Brazil imported the equivalent to US$ 66.3 million from Tunisia in the first ten months of 2004, against US$ 28.5 million in the first 10 months of 2003.
ANBA ”“ Brazil-Arab News Agency