Emirates Post signs agreement with UPU for hosting Strategy Conference in November 2006

The agreement was signed by Mr. Edouard Dayan, Director General of the UPU, and Mr. Abdulla Ibrahim Al Daboos, Director General of Emirates Post, during the annual session of the UPU Council of Administration in Berne, Switzerland.

The conference will be taking place from 14 to 16 November 2006 at the Grand Hyatt Dubai Conference Centre. Some 800 delegates from more than 130 UPU member countries are expected to attend the three-day Strategy Conference.

Mr. Al Daboos pledged that the UAE would go the extra mile to make the conference a success. Mr. Dayan emphasized the importance of finding topics that would facilitate high-level discussions and interaction and point the way to the future.

"It is an honour for the UAE and Emirates Post to be selected as the venue for UPU's Strategy Conference which is being held outside Switzerland for the very first time," said Mr. Al Daboos. "For the UAE, it presents yet another opportunity to prove its status as a world-class venue for major global conferences. For Emirates Post, it is a great opportunity to highlight its vision and goals before postal players from all over the world."

The UPU's Strategic Planning Group has already begun the process of planning for the conference structure, topics and programme. The themes and draft programme will be discussed at the Council of Administration Management Committee and during the Postal Operations Council session in April 2006.

This will be the first time that the Conference would be held outside Switzerland. The previous two conferences, in 1997 and 2002, took place in Geneva. The UPU Strategy Conference, held every four years, takes stock of the progress achieved in meeting the objectives of the World Postal Strategy adopted at the previous Congress and charts the direction for Posts until the next Congress, which will be held in Nairobi in 2008.