 depending on whichever part of the world you are in. And welcome to our monthly recurring UPU Consolidated Committee webinar, a series that is designated for exploration and collaboration. I'll also take a moment to wish all the folks joining from India for the 76th Independence Day. My name is Santosh Gopal. I'm the Vice Chairman for Consolidated Committee of UPU. I'm honored to serve as a host today. Together, every month, we pick and choose very relevant topic and embark on a journey of discovery and insights that bridge our industries. Today, our discussion spotlight rests on a pivotal role of freight and transport in propelling the e-commerce expansion. Delving into the potency of public partnerships, public private partnerships, we'll explore how this energy advances in e-commerce within the postal sector. I'm very fortunate and thrilled to introduce you to all our elite and global panel. In fact, it's a truly global panel. We have Mr. Lars Karlsson, Global Adult Trade and Customs at MERSC. You have Ghana, Motresco, VP of Global Sales at Nova Poshta, Ukraine. We have Ignacio Meyer, VP of Sales for Europe and Africa for Mail America. He's based out of Argentina. Neil O'Neill, Chief Executive Officer of Creative Collisions Ireland and Jack O'Wool's Poetry, Senior Management Transport of Logistics in Netherlands. Last but not least, Mr. Walter Trezek, our Honourable Chair for the Concertary Committee and Co-Chair of e-commerce Europe will be the subject matter expert for today's session. And he's based out of Vienna, Austria. So let us start probably with a presentation from Mr. Walter. I hope everybody's able to see the screen and Mr. Walter, please get started. Thank you. Thank you, Santosh. A very warm welcome also for me here currently from Austria. I'm delighted that we already have 85 participants in that webinar, but I would like to give you a clear introduction to set the scene a little bit because we face a major challenge in global e-commerce when it comes to shipping, to transport, to freight, to postal services. And my short presentation will focus right into that. It is, of course, all about data and the changing infrastructure in this world. So let me guide you through that and I will use certain clear examples coming directly from the world of the Universal Postal Union. And what you see here on my slide is a screenshot coming out of clear circulars indicating throughout the postal world what kind of data elements are mandatory to be prepared as already by the sender for handing over the shipments to postal operators. But this is also the same more or less for express carriers. So, Santosh, please, next, yes, thank you. So the most important thing, of course, is a clear description of the content, the quantity, the net weight, the value, the country of origin of goods and predominantly now also globally, the harmonized systems tariff code, the H6 digit code for each item and article contained within a postal consignment. The next step, of course, is a kind of consolidation of possible more than one of those items or articles into the postal item and consignment. So this is done by fulfillment. So the first step has to be done by the clear supply chain inventory management. The second step is done by fulfillment. The third step is then the link to the postal or the first logistic operator. It starts with the shipping cost and postage and the next step, Santosh, is, of course, then linking it to the classical postal requisites. That's the sender's name, the sender's address, the addressee's name, the addressee's address, possibly in most cases also some indications about the telephone number or how the addressee can be approached. And, of course, a unique identifier to be placed right onto the consignment to identify that consignment. So all that data is necessary, but you might have seen or identified already. It's coming from different resources and has to be brought together so that the express carrier or the designated operator can actually fulfill its obligation, carry it and hand it also over to any kind of logistics and transport resource. All that, sorry, one back please. Thank you. All that leads now to a very important change which we have to identify within the next one or two years. So there is new technology, completely new systems have to be implemented. There are totally new supply chain processes. There are new actors. There is new and better data mandatory already. There has to be a collaboration and exchange of information between all those actors in the supply chain. The customs, business processes are very different. So we have pre-loading data to be exchanged, pre-reviable data to be exchanged. The inclusion of customs procedures at arrival and at presentation leading to a clear risk management, not only in Europe, but also for trans shipments all over the world. This is now being highlighted and is a major task for the world's customs organization and all the customs organizations worldwide. Let me emphasize again, those data elements you see here in the different boxes under the responsibility of different actors have to be of highest quality to facilitate all that. Next slide please. To summarize, we need a clearly updated virtual inventory even prior to any sales conducted at the point of sale. And that has to include prices, duties, customs, HS codes, what have you. Only then transport or the engagement of the first logistics operator is possible to fulfill not only the obligation when it comes to tariffs or handing down to last mile delivery, but also to transport security, product safety and very soon sustainability, the measurement of CO2, greenhouse gas emissions, the reporting on it and the allocation. And lastly of course, and this is the most important part yet again, it is all done to serve the customer's preferences. So it's not a linear exercise, but has to be also taken into account when it comes to PUDO locations, parcel boxes, unattended delivery. And I stop here because I'm sure that our distinguished panelists will look into those matters further. Thank you, Santosh, back to you. Thank you, Mr. Walter. As usual. Santosh, you're multiple, sorry. Yes. As usual, you have certainly given very valuable insight on what's happening and what needs to be done as a mandatory step to boost this. And with this, we'll get into our panel questions and we have four participants and each of them would have one particular, each would have them get two minutes to respond to those questions and the question will be common for all of them. One of the key elements where a really a postal and private partnership is important is the last mile efficiency. And with this, I'll open up the questions first to Mr. Lars. Would you like to share your views and please try and keep it in less than two minutes and we will participants, you're free to add any questions to the chat. At the end of the session, we'll certainly review some of the questions and we'll come back and address that part. The questions which are not addressed will come back towards the end of the session, or probably post session, we'll send in notifications and updates on all those questions. So Mr. Lars, what's your view on how the last mile efficiency could be improved through the partnership of private and public players? Thank you very much, Santosh. Good morning and good afternoon. Good evening, everybody. It was also a great introduction from Walter, as always. Let me start by saying it's great for us, for me to be involved in the CC and the UPU right now and we're looking forward to working together as a new member. On this very important question, Walter is of course right, we are heading into a situation where we have a lot of challenges ahead of us. However, I'm also optimistic about that because the world is changing. We've seen through the big changes and challenges over the last couple of years and we don't have to mention what those have been, that the industry is changing as well. So private sector is changing to respond to resilience, to respond to various threats and difficulties and while the regulators, which we'll come back to, of course it's also adding on new elements of demands here. I think there is also a positive trend where private sector is putting up systems, supply chain visibility, different type of the international initiatives that actually can help and support the last mile delivery and actually the full supply chain efficiency in many different ways. We in Merced are certainly doing that, but it can only be done by partnerships and cooperation here. There's nobody single alone player or stakeholder that actually can help and support and do this in a proper way. So it has to be a private partnership with the public and of course, international institutions. Let me finalize my first comment, which is directly about the question here about last mile efficiency. I think a good example, and we might come back to that later, is the Postal Prosperity Zone Initiative by UPU, which have been done through also UPUCC and members and memberships, which creates also a new model that actually can help and support and how you attach the best elements, the key points of each of the organization that has to work together to make this happen. Private sector, the different players in e-commerce, but also UPU and others, including ourselves and the freight forwarders that is involved. We've also different stakeholders of the customs policy part, which in this case, and the Postal Prosperity Zone is about the World Free Zone Organization and Free Zones. And of course, that in itself will help and support the last mile delivery, where everybody in that supply chain can become a partner that can do whatever they are best at. And again, UPU has a lot to offer on that side. And we are certainly, as MERSC and as a freight forwarder, but also an integrator of trade, going to be very interested in taking part and partner with everybody else. At the end of the day, it's about data, data change. How do we collect the data? How do we process it through and do not duplicate it through the process but actually do it in cost-efficient way? That's where I think the Postal Operations can do a really good work. And that is also for the emerging economies and a huge opportunity for the future. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carlson. That's very valuable. As I just summarized, data has become critical for every technology innovation. Ms. Ghana Matris, would you like to share your views? Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you, Lars, for your thoughts. I fully agree with everything that you mentioned before. Collaboration between postal providers and private companies can create really fruitful and healthy environment for e-commerce growth. And I believe here we can talk about speed and predictability as well because data is important, but speed and predictability of the delivery, one of the main targets for our clients as well. As a Novapost in Ukraine, we are working hard to fulfill all of our KPIs for the clients for the last mile delivery special. Let's say we have a 26 hours average lead time for local delivery in Ukraine. We, in 60 seconds, given the chance to clients to pick up and send the parcel from our PUDO. And the most important, we have a mobile application which includes all of the needed information regarding the tracking events and real-time data regarding the couriers. So we can see where the courier is and we avoid an enemy's understanding on the last mile delivery. I believe that European clients are facing a lot with the trouble regarding the delivery to the neighbor or some other mistakes. So additionally, postal providers can create networking for the private companies such we are. So together with network of postal providers and last mile delivery and speed of delivery for the private company, we can create a really great atmosphere for our clients and as a result, we will lead to more volume. We will create more healthy environment for the injection and generally for the speeds and predictability for our customers. Thank you. Thank you, Dana. You highlighted the importance of trace and tracking and the customer experience. The next question will focus more on the consumer experience but certainly your insights were very valuable. Mr. Ignacio Mayer, would you like to share your views? Thank you, Santosh. Thank you very much. As you know, in male Americas, we specialize in cross-border e-commerce so my opinion will more focus on that. And to be honest, I think at large, Angana already addressed the importance of technology integration and stuff. So what I think that why is the partnership important is because of something more intangible. There are two things and these are experience and knowledge. So what I believe that it's very important in these two is that perhaps with the private sector can bring the experience and the knowledge of what the customers want and the postal sector can provide all of the experience of knowing what the country wants, what the people of the country need and how to implement it. So think about it, if you measure these two things, the private players knowing what the customers, the international marketplaces consolidators want, what their standards are, what their targets, their goals are and you merge it with the postal players saying, okay, in here we do things like this, you want it like that, okay, let's get together and let's agree on how would the best business will be, the best service will be, then you have a killer service because you are measuring the best of two words, the private players knowing what they want and the postal saying, okay, this is how a country fulfill it, this is how we build it together in order to build a very good solution. So the postal sector can provide a lot in terms of structure and in terms of knowing the people and the private players with the experience of knowing what the international players need. That's my view on this point. And that's very valuable in terms of sharing experience and the wealth of knowledge, what you have done as a private player across the region and how you can enable post offers with all those benefits. So Mr. Jaco, what's for each? Would you like to share your views? Yes, I would very much like to do so. So let me start by saying I have over 30 years of experience in pretty much all modes of transport and also in beneficial cargo owners and environments. So with that in mind, I'm a very practical person. So I recognize what Walter already mentioned that in general we may have up to three at least logistic service providers involved at origin in the long haul and then the final mile delivery. So information exchanged between the beneficial cargo owners also identified by Walter, all of these LSPs needs to be unambiguous and well understood amongst all of those. The only way that that is going to be possible is if we start adopting and using internationally and globally accepted standards such as ISO standards to make sure that we all talk about the same things when we identify things in information exchanges, all technology that we use, uses identifiers and associated data. So it must be easy to transfer physical objects, the boxes that we have between the players without having to do all sorts of additional norm value added activities as is currently the case. Now, I would like to stress once again in order to do this, you really are going to have to use globally accepted data standards. The good news is they all exist. We don't need to invent anything new. It's all there. We just have to apply those standards in order for us being postals or non-postals doesn't matter. We can use those existing standards to achieve these partnerships and exchange of information between all of these players including all of the LSPs and all of the beneficial cargo owners involved such that we can ensure that the right transport solution is offered and executed seamlessly regardless of which stage of the execution we are from the moment that goods are being sold to the moment that those same goods are being received by the buyer. And that will mean that we need to start collaborating more to use the resources each of us has to a higher level of utilization because otherwise efficiency is not going to be achieved and the loss of efficiency is additional cost to all of us, including those that buy products online. I hope I've been able to sort of summarize this in two minutes, Santosh, and there will I guess some more time later on to delve into more detail on all of it. Yes, you did summarize, but it took almost three minutes and let's stick to the time if possible. And I think one of the two things which I've learned is more about the data set and cross-border. With that, I'd like to give an opportunity for Mr. Neil Nyall O'Neill who runs a cross-border platform for cross-border e-commerce platform. Mr. Neil, would you like to go forward? Yeah, thank you, Santosh. And also there's a very big, if we have any of our Italian friends and post-Italian I'd like to say Buono Ferragosta because it's a big celebration in Italy today. But thank you, Santosh. As indicated, and that's spoken by Bayako and everybody here and Larisa earlier on, data is key to success. And it's touching on standardization, I suppose, is central for the transmission of that data. So our company provides cross-border customs compliance technology solutions. So AI-driven technologies for using natural language for the classification of goods. And that's a really, really important piece because without those strong foundations, the rest of the customs compliance procedures, it will create friction throughout the customs compliance procedures. But without going on and repeating what everybody has already said, I think what's really important here is that the technology and the knowledge and the experience is all available. And that's where I believe the power of the UPCC is. It's actually by being able to communicate that and to make our technologies and make our experience and to be able to be shared that experience through the platform. So that's it. Thank you, Mr. Neil. I think as Mr. Walter mentioned in his presentation, all the details are provided from the point of sale and you initiate that part very well in terms of data being available and ready in standardization format. All becomes critical. So this is a very important point. Thank you. Absolutely. But also that data can be captured, cleaned, reviewed, scanned, improved, anywhere through the validation of both of our export and for import. So whether it be a DDP or a DDU or a Scan and Trace stage, there's always areas to integrate those APIs to make the data better and to capture and to clean before that data is distributed to ITMAT or into UPU-CBS. So... Yes, Mr. Neil. At the same time, as much as we have data when it goes to cross-borrow the regulatory challenges and compliances which we need to adhere to, we will cover that aspect in our question number three. I think one common thing which I really learned is more about how does the end consumer sees and views all of that. So certainly I'd like to hear maybe from Mr. Neil starting from you on what's your view on how important is the customer experience in this entire journey? Absolutely. I think everybody knows that the pitfalls in relation to DDU. I don't think any of us have ever had the experience of a postman knocking early in the morning and looking for cash for a parcel that you didn't expect. Paying additional handling fees is a good customer experience. So customer experience and transparency is the key to success here for everybody. So just the technology, all of the solutions available, getting that data piece right, being able to present through your networks. I think our services that we provide is a company that's quite broad in that we provide services right throughout what they call the customer to parcel journey whereas we have APIs that can fit into the checkout. So being able to provide that customer with the transparency and point of purchase is really, really important. And nobody likes to be surprised but getting that data right at source also means that you're making the job easier for our postal partners. So our postal partners receive accurate data and then that's submitted correctly to customs which ensures a smooth end-to-end customer experience. So again, it comes back to data. That's where our particular focus is and that's where I believe that it's a critical part of getting the customer experience correct. So that's great. I think transparency and the final loading cost is very important for consumers because nobody likes surprises after the delivery. So that's it. Mr. Wojpoj, would you like to share views on customer experience? Yeah, very much actually because I buy online as well. So I have my own customer experiences which are not altogether that joyful. So basically, we need to recognize that currently the information that a customer actually gets for the execution of especially long range deliveries is pretty appalling. One of the key reasons there is that there is little or no exchange between the various logistic service providers that are involved in this end-to-end journey of the goods from the seller to the buyer, us basically. We also need to realize that that is also caused by one big fact that's often overlooked in our industry and that is that 90 to 95% transfer of the logistics is micro and small and medium enterprises that have few or no resources for information technology and therefore are very poorly integrated at the moment in the exchange of the information that they should capture and should share as part of what they do in this delivery process. Now we need to fix this as an industry and especially in the e-commerce context where the MSMEs are really a prevalent feature. There are technologies available for this that are longstanding and have proven themselves. They're amongst others, PEPL and EFTI are based on the same concept of connect once, communicate everywhere, which basically means that those micro and small and medium enterprises, they only connect once and then they can serve any and all of the bigger players, be they LSPs or BCOs to exchange the information so that ultimately I know and I can have confidence that my goods will arrive at a predictable moment in time. As was already pointed out also by Ghana, I think as a prime thing that customers really want. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Jacko. So I know that when consumer buys from a website especially cross-border, their first experience is about the website and the last mile, but however the middle mile and the last mile players may not be clearly visible to the customer. But Mr. Mayor, how do you suggest do you think the private players could help increase the experience though they may or may not get the complete visibility of what you are offering? Santosh, as you know, I'm a millennial and we are in the era of the globalization. So what I believe is that the best way to perform a good customer experience is with information. So again, we work in a cross-border trade. So we go from first mile in some country up to middle mile flying through the world up until custom gears on the smile. And what we have found is that as soon as you make the purchase in any marketplace in the world, 10 minutes later you are already wanting to know where that parcel is. And if you don't see movement for more than 15 minutes you're thinking that it's not moving at all. So what we have found in Made America is that the best way to perform a good customer experience is to show every step of the way and to communicate it to the customer. How do we communicate it with information? Your parcel is here, is there and it's up until the end. And when it arrives, we interconnect with the post office at destination and we agree on what is the information that we are going to show to the customer. And what information is the most information? As much as we can give to the customer so he can know at the exact time where the parcel is is the best way to perform a very good customer experience. And because of that we encounter different challenges of course. And when you provide as much knowledge as possible then the customer can make a full review on how the experience went. I thought that custom clears was going to be shorter. I thought that the air freight was going to be shorter. If you can give them good metrics and full information we believe that the customer experience is the best as possible. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Meyer. You mentioned about the customer experience information sharing but sometimes when there are multiple parties involved in a transaction the right channel of communication would also become equally important. So maybe Ms. Ghana-Motrescu and would you be able to highlight on how your experience has been in Ukraine especially when it comes to buying from a different website and being delivered either between post offices or a private party? How does this integration happens? Yeah, this question is very important because our API should conclude all of the information which clients need as a result. And I would like to highlight here that not just we should do a huge part of work with the API integration. However, our e-commerce center already has some criteria how they choose and last mile provider and middle mile provider and first mile as well. And they have some machine artificial intelligence when they can choose the right provider by indicating the rates and PS percentage of non-delivery parcel loss claims, et cetera. So clients e-commerce center already manage experience of the final client, final recipient. What we need to do here we need to fulfill all of the obligation which they rely on us. So it's fully trackable parcels. So we need to include all of the tracking events in any stage of transportation then proceed the custom clearance. Our clients expectation for proceeding the custom clearance it's like 20 minutes for all consolidation which we got. That's why the tracking event should immediately be on place on the platform. In case if you have any question regarding the API exchange for the tracking events, you already failed. So if you failed, that means another provider will get part of your business and this volume will switch immediately. That's why we are working hard with our e-commerce and generally working with a customer very deeply to involve customer into the communication to make customer be aware where the parcel is. And that's why we have a lot of tools for that. It's exactly to talking with the customer. Thank you. That's a great point in terms of having visibility a real-time visibility helps customer to be at home to accept packages, to ensure there's no theft. All this becomes very important. The same time when you partner with a public postal player like a local regional post offices and it's very important to make sure that there's a seamless experience which of course we'll talk in the next session how do we engage on a regulatory as well as compliance basis of the data. And Mr. Carlson, would you like to share your experiences on the customer journey? No, absolutely. And I think my colleagues have already on the panel said really good, a number of good things that I fully support. But of course, a really good customer experience can only be achieved by a collaborative approach because as being mentioned by several it's about how can we actually exchange the data that is there all through the process as Ignacio said before as well, right? That is what we also need to do. And of course in one way the customer many times are almost interested in the last mile delivery when will the package come to me? Of course that can only be achieved in a good way if we actually have full supply chain visibility. Now the good news is that the infrastructure is there the standards are there to do this. And even though Walter gave us a good challenge in the beginning and he's right, I think there's also again, as I said before positive things around this how we actually can get the journey better and more transparent and by actually using existing systems of different players but we need to connect them and connect the data between them. And that is possible to do. That is what we work on many other work on right now. And my final point would be it's also one of the issues we talked about around borders, right? So government agencies and we'll get into the question in the next question around regulatory enforcers. That is one of the reasons why sometimes we can't have transparency full transparency. There's a black box at the border. This is starting to change now. So there's a number of initiative and products we've been involved in and actually having also the border agencies involved they need this data as well. And by needing it we can also provide both them and the client at the end of the day the right to transparency and visibility all through the supply chain including passing these numbers and borders that actually every package goes through. So I think there's some really good experience to be shared and actually some the next couple of years we'll see a lot of development in this area. Thank you. Thanks Mr. Carlson. That's very valuable. As we see that more and more data and transparency is being requested and published there's also a balance between the data privacy data shielding how much information should share should be shared outside the country within the country and between the merchants and the dropshippers. And keeping that in mind there are several compliances and regulatory challenges which come up. This could be also not just in part of transaction but also in terms of engaging with postal operators and engaging with the private players across multiple geographies the time it takes to do paperwork the time it takes to work with government entities. So I'd like to understand how do you walk through this part in terms of establishing a business relationship while keeping in mind of the complexities of engagement and on top of it the international rules and regulations of data privacy the source and distinction could be in very different locations as well under different laws. So maybe Mr. Carlson would you like to start with for responding to this question? Now absolutely it's one of my favorite topics in the world of having also 30 years of yours in international institutions and governments and obviously you're absolutely right but there's also a common interest here and what we're starting to see is framework legislation like the UK Electronic Trade Documents Act we see in European Union as Walter was referring to a number of new changes that in one way also of course make trade compliance more complex and complicated but it's also possible because two things to actually and I normally call it global trade 2.0 and I always say that we could start not talking about e-commerce anymore because it's norm, it's commerce and it also has the same infrastructure and it also have its same need of data. So what we are starting to actually see is also how trade regulations, free trade agreements different type of technical agreements now include also how data will be protected and also when voluntary data submission can be used to actually enhance the customer experience enhance the controls at borders but at the same time make the journey much better and seamless and that is integration of a trade that can only be done again with data and having access from data I always say the border used to start at the ground but it doesn't anymore it does when somebody pick up the phone and buy a ticket or buy something online and of course that is the data source we've been talking about. Final point, the interesting thing here is that I think we voluntary means and framework legislation much can be achieved because again there are technical solutions already there the standards are already there the infrastructure is already there and we talk a lot about the MSEs and SMEs involved here but they are using the same infrastructure as everybody else. So let's connect those partners that is in the stakeholders to actually make sure we make an inclusive new global trade 2.0 where we actually change and change and use this data all through including with government agencies. You're absolutely right. At the same time when it comes to international and cross border do you see a bigger role where UPU could lead this transformation? I think UPU has to lead this transformation because that is where there's two things that nobody else have we talked about the last mile delivery as still being USP of the postal operators but also the data networking is necessary and UPU and the postal operators actually have that system already in place. So of course many others need to connect with UPU and UPU need to take a leading role to get with organizations as mentioned before like the World Customs Organization my old organization and several other big players but not only big players obviously as we talked about it also needs to protect and make sure that this can be done with technology with easy collection of data points through apps and whatever it might be that is already existing in the market where we connect and use the data standards to actually make sure that everybody can be involved including also emerging economies and postal operators in those countries can actually take the lead to make this happen at the borders and through borders. Thank you Mr. Carlson and Ghana would you like to share views as a private company you are operating across multiple countries how is your experience in working with different regulations and how do you see UPU helping hand in these activities? Yeah so we are quite new member of the community that's why we just start to face with a lot of requirements and the information which we should fulfill actually regarding that of course we have a homework to do in Ukraine regarding the custom clearance and generally data standards and the wide postal label etc. So we have a job to do on this matter and of course we are working hard with governmental side to make sure that they are okay to connect the postal providers and final mile deliveries as express companies together because at this stage the connection on the governmental level is not that abuse. So we still need different custom clearance process between the postal provider and custom clearance for the private companies also the different type of the bonded warehouses required in Ukraine as well. So a lot of actually job to do and we just on the way to fulfill that. That's great. And Mr. Meyer, would you like to share views and how are things at your end when it comes to Europe and Africa and South America? So Santosh, I believe that here is, as I've been spoken, the important thing is that the post office understands and passes clear rules to the private part of the partnership and then the private part needs to address it to the customer and provide good and quality information and attached to the rules. So that customs can have the tranquility that everything is in compliance. So the information and the communication between the postal and the private entities are vital not only to comply but also to maybe propose and discuss improvements with the regulatory authorities because sometimes the regulatory are old and need to be changed in a proper way, in a polite way, of course. And with this, the private players can provide new trends and new information on the markets and the postal authorities can channelize these new proposals into the regulatory authorities. And also it is very important that the post offices as of the universal service obligation need to serve all of the country and they need to have a differential in order to cover these extra costs. It is very important for the post office to be able to enhance this differential that they should get because of having to serve all of the country. So I believe that here the private players in the partnership can provide a lot of information and a lot of data in order to help the post offices that for my experience in some countries are not enforcing the advantages that they may have such as monopolies on delivering parcel from zero to four, one kg, small packages and stuff. They should be having a monopoly and they are not having it. So sometimes maybe the private players can help them with a lot of information in this. Thank you. Good point because sometimes these are beyond postal operators. It comes to the government and regulators as well in terms of defining their policies and within those countries. And as they say, the strength of a chain depends on the weakest link. If one link is broken, the entire transaction fails. Mr. Jaco, you have a lot more experience across the chain, across the life cycle of all these transactions. What's your view on what are the top regulatory challenges and how do you see UP playing with the role? Yeah, let me start with the cross-border. I think, and I've said this before, that transparent logistics and e-commerce is no exception is involved in the biggest game of Chinese whispers ever for the last couple of decades. We seem to just push data along the chain. I think that chain is far too often broken. So I think we should be far more, let's say forward-looking. So whatever is on the box should be able to link whomever is handling that box back to the data at source so that you have reliable information available at the time that you need to make decisions. And that is true for the LSPs handling this. This is true for any of the agencies that are involved in cross-border procedures as well. And there are standards available for this again. So this is nothing that's beyond the realm of possibilities. Is there a role for this in the UP? Potentially, but I think it's more of an exercise for the LSPs and the BCOs and authorities themselves. But I do wish to highlight one element of regulations that we seem to not discuss so far. And that is cities and deliveries into regulated city environments. There is an ever-increasing level of regulation there about what can be done in terms of the actual delivery of the e-commerce parcels in those environments. And basically the trend seems to be to force ever more consolidation of the flows of these goods and consolidation of flows means much more collaboration between the public and the private entities that are involved also in moving stuff towards the city, moving stuff into the city, and also moving returns back out of the city for the return flows. That part I think is too often overlooked and I don't see any rule for any room for the UPU to act in that context, truth be told. I think that's generally something that is more of a domestic issue with the domestic operators, the LSPs, including the postal providers in that country to collaborate to make sure that the customer experience ultimately is going to be improved by working together much better than they are currently working together. Thanks for the valuable insight and it finally comes down to the individual country and the postal operators to have a great intention, openness and excitement to engage with private players. And Ms. Neel, I know that as a private freight players, every country you can choose to work with certain countries or not, but you have a very uphill task of having a cross-border checkout where you do not know where the package will be going and the rules in every country, regulations and terms and customs, everything keeps changing. So how do you think the global regulations and privacy and transparency and pricing, all of this play a role and how does your company address those issues? Thank you, Santosh. I think as a foundational piece with the global requirements for AED or EAD, what we know is that this is a constantly changing and dynamic environment, but we know that all of the industries are working in one direction. So if I could take a slightly different skew on this, what I was going to say from a leadership perspective, in our experience over the last number of years working with postal players and both postal players and LSPs, the postal players and the LSPs have been that the link between the smaller merchants, because ultimately the compliance risk sits with the merchants and the people who are sending the goods. The challenge there, especially for those micro-SNEs is that cross-border taxes are very, very complicated. So if you're a UK business selling into the EU pre-IOSS or so post-Brexit, you need to understand the regulations across 27 and different member states in relation to the AED due to the taxes. So that standardization around the iOSS has been a massive benefit, both to the regional economies, but also to help to uplift our sales, because pre-Brexit, excuse me, pre-Brexit, there was a scare factor out there because a lot of businesses that we've seen actually reduce selling or cross-border because of the complexities or the perceived complexities of those taxes. So anecdotally, I just believe that the postal authorities, the national posts themselves have a vital or a pivotal, again, through their network, through their power, through their experience to be able to communicate, to educate those local audiences. Ultimately, that's going to help to boost those regional economies and the socioeconomic development. It's going to help to boost revenues and really help to grow those businesses and those economies. Now, maintaining the technical side of everything that we do has been a massive, massive challenge. Because we understood going back in, it's everything being driven by the regulations and WCO guidelines. We realized that with emerging technologies and the power of machine learning and AI, it would be possible to address specific challenges within that foundational piece around harmonization code identification. We would, by working with our partners and with the new changes to ICS and ICS-2 and the requirements for more complex descriptive languages, traditional sellers simply use natural language. They don't use customs language and that's where you have this friction point between the actual sellers and the customs authorities. So being able to utilize technology and AI to be able to solve these problems at a fast scale is actually vitally important. How we maintain that has been an ongoing challenge and it's a wonderful thing that we've actually been able to grow our technology over the last number of years, but it is a very, very, very complex procedure. Now, even from a pricing perspective, our guidelines are all driven by actually accessing all of the global regulations around VAT, duties and taxes, et cetera, but our technology is the key for scalability. Thank you for your response. And as I know, that while we focus on customs, tariffs, taxes and data appliances, same time in the last one month, at least seven countries have uploaded their entire data sharing and privacy rules of the country. So that becomes even more challenging. And probably this is where UPU could be a consolidator, work with different countries to collect information on different policies and set guidelines so that you as a private player don't need to go to hundreds of countries to collect the data. And with that, we segue to our last question on sustainability is one of the very important and globally aware situation we all are facing and everybody has a role to play. Unfortunately due to the lack of time, we request less than a minute for responding with this. Maybe Neil, you could start with that as you're on the screen. And what's your view on what you are trying to do in terms of sustainability goals for the entire planet? Quite simply, if we can remove friction and have transparency and help parcels get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, that's the key. But when it comes to collaboration between public and postal, I think we discussed previously on a previous call, if we have four or five vehicles, both postal and commercial, in the same jurisdictions delivering postal, why can't they share data? Why can't they share a load? Why can't they share that last mile experience as an example to be able to collaborate more effectively, to take more carbon emissions off the ground? But that all comes back to again, data sharing of data transparency, having standardization across those technologies and being able to communicate openly and to be able to leverage those commercial opportunities. I believe that's a key to success. That's a big point. I think you mentioned also with the EAD processes that takes a lot of paper and focuses and digitization. That's again an important part. You mentioned about the last mile consolidation and six different tracks coming to my house on a daily basis. I'd rather have one track to come with all these products consolidated. And that's something which postal operators could have a great point of view and opportunity to take as a consolidation. And Ghana, what's your view on sustainability? I fully agree. We have to share the space and combine all the parcels. I mean, if it's possible to one track and deliver as much as possible also in Nova Bosnia and Ukraine, how we are trying to reduce carbon emissions is changing and minimizing the roads actually and improving tracks loading capacity. It's actually what we are talking here for cross-border as well. It is our local strategy. Also, we had the strategy to improve our track with electronic vehicles as well and scooters too. However, due to the some circumstances as a war in Ukraine, it's hard to be only with the electronic devices on stage. That's why we are working hard to just optimize and minimize all of our efforts for the last mile delivery. And this is about schedule, about improving loading capacity and joint work for the last mile in general, the cross-border delivery. Thank you. As you mentioned that certainly all the steps what you're talking about is very important. At the same time, the consumer awareness is equally important because if they request every two-hour delivery, four-hour delivery, then consolidation becomes a challenge. It's always a trade-off between the consumer requirements and the operations and delivery operations. Mr. Mayer, what's your experience on sustainability and how your company is focusing on meeting sustainability goals and enabling postal operators with that? In mainland America, what I've found is to take different steps of origin are very important in order to detect and avoid sending any forbidden goods into destination because if you think about it, if you're going to send them just to make reverse logistics, you're making a very big carbon footprint and for nothing at the end of the day. So detecting what parcels cannot be or are forbidden at the destination country is very important. And also, since I only got a minute, it is very important to work on the quality of the information in order not to have failed deliveries at destination. So to work together as postal with the postal structure and with the private players, with the customers to provide good quality information in addressing in order to avoid failed deliveries and to avoid making two, three, four delivery attempts. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mayer. And Jacko and Lars, if you could keep it very short. Mr. Jacko, please just go ahead. Yeah, I can keep it very short. I wholeheartedly concur with the consolidation of flows. I do wish to highlight two other things though that have really more to do with the shippers or the immersions. So first of all, highlighting that we don't want all of these rush orders that would prevent consolidation. The default options for delivery should at least enable the fact that things can be consolidated for delivery. So that's one element. And the second thing is returns. I mean, if you can also prevent returns of stuff that the customer receives initially and then sends back, that would also be a huge benefit in terms of sustainability. And again, this is on the seller's side, not so much on the logistics service providers ballpark, but it is very, very important for sustainability to be achieved. Every party which plays a role as an obligation to manage sustainability. And Mr. Carlson. Yeah, it's of course, as one of the big movers of goods in the world, this is on a top again, as for many else. And of course, as we speak, the first green container ship is on its way to Copenhagen on its maiden trip. And of course, electronic vehicles for inland delivery and so forth is on our scale as well. But I would like to just underline what Neil said before that at the end of the day we know that a lot of these footprints, carbon footprints and so forth is actually around the borders. So again, removing friction here, making sure that we can have more seamless movement. And that needs again, to be integrated, it needs to be fully agree on the consolidation piece, but also again, the data exchange to be able to make sure that we do not have stops at borders that are too long, which is also causing a bad carbon footprint for everybody involved. And I think we are on the way of doing that, but we also need to start measuring it actually a little bit more around this to actually optimize it and then work together in cooperation to make it work. That's absolutely right. Knowing where you are will help you define and design how you get to the destination, goals of sustainability. And thank you everyone for this sessions. And I may request Mr. Walter Trezegh to summarize his takeaways from the entire session. And that actually also leads to our next month's event on PPC. Mr. Walter, please go ahead. Thank you, Santosh. Thank you so much for this fantastic webinar. For me, in the last minute or two, three major points as takeaways. I understood that the harmonization of data exchange in advance globally is of key essence. Unifying networks and applications seems to be a key role the UPU can play. The interconnectivity between existing networks between designated operators and wider postal sector players might be logistic service providers or solution providers is of essence. And the role of the UPU shown then webinar today where we see wider postal sector players deeply engaged on a platform of the UPU to discuss the pending problems in global e-commerce related to freight and transport. Thank you very much indeed. And with that, I would like to point out that on September the 12th, we will host again a webinar this time based on the focus on of the postal prosperity zones. This is targeted onto existing infrastructures already globally deployed by free zones to interconnect cross-border based on UPU harmonized electronic advance data specifications through designated postal operators placing possibly offices of exchange right into the free zones providing access to the global postal network driven and frustrated by the UPU. And with that, back to you, Santosh. And thank you very much indeed and congratulations. Thank you dear participants. Back to you, Santosh. Thank you everyone. And I'd certainly like to, I'm sorry that we could not address the questions and I'll work with Veronica and the secretariat to make sure we find ways to respond to some of the questions which has been made. And I'll also take time to thank all our support team, especially from the secretariat, from Alex, Veronica, Tia and of course the communications team from Kayla and Ekaterina and of course the PTC team to help us support us through hosting this entire environment and they were starting on the webinar on time and with 100% predictability. Thank you everyone. I look forward seeing you on 12th of September with another series of our concerted committee webinar. Thank you very much. Have a good one.