Estonia, Markets and Companies, Post Office

The minister, in his capacity as an emergency general meeting of shareholders of AS Eesti Post, endorsed the strategic directions of development for the company for the next five years, in order to ensure sustainable and effective business of Eesti Post and increase customer friendliness, spokespeople for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications said.

"Linking mail delivery and parcel terminals with each other will offer people more options as regards the way they wish to receive services from Eesti Post. For instance, they would be able to have letters and small parcels delivered to a parcel terminal near their workplace in the future," Siem said according to the spokespeople.

The minister emphasized that bringing the services together will in no way discontinue the delivery of mail in rural areas, and post offices and post stations will not be closed. 

He observed that since the e-invoice business is somewhat different from letter mail and parcel service and is not a strategic necessity for the state, it makes sense to keep it separate from the core business.

"We believe that the information business as a separate company will offer more value and greater economic benefit than today," Siem said.  

In addition, the minister instructed the supervisory board to conduct a special audit into management decisions to find out how the decisions of the management of Eesti Post have affected the sustainability of the company in the past two years. 

"We need to understand whether and in what form have management decisions led to inefficient action and to take steps if necessary to minimize similar risks in the future," the minister said.

Siem added that this helps to create bigger synergy within the organization, as it is also important that in addition to being in a better financial shape Eesti Post would become stronger internally.