Courier services told to reregister licenses

Courier services told to reregister licenses

JAKARTA (JP): The government will revoke the licenses of courier services if they fail to reregister their licenses by May, an official says.

Director General of Post and Telecommunications, Djakaria Purawidjaja, told reporters yesterday the revocation threatened all courier services, including those not registered as members of the Association of Indonesian Postal Services (Asperindo).

"The association has hundreds of members and not only the 63 which are the most active. A reregistration will show which ones are operative and which aren't," Djakaria said during a break at a one-day seminar on the vision of the Indonesian post in the year 2005.

Djakaria said the reregistration is not meant to reduce the number of postal services operating here and contended that he had met members of Asperindo who have agreed to reregister at the Ministry.

"In Jakarta alone, there are more than 20 inactive courier services," he said.

Asperindo Chairman Rudi Pesik said the association's members are currently preparing themselves for the reregistration but considered the terms set by the government very demanding.

For example, he said, courier services are required to submit a five-year plan of their activities and the list of "experts" in their companies.

"These are difficult terms because the five-year plan, for instance, is designed by a company as a confidential strategy to face market competition. They will be unwilling to reveal this," he said.

Rudi saw the requirement to hire experts in courier service companies the company as difficult because the definition of an expert was still ambiguous.

"If the government wants to cut back the number of courier services, or if it is only a formality, they should do so based on a company's operations. If a company violates the law, then its license can simply be revoked," he said. (pwn)