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Q-Post History |
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Postal Services in Qatar |
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Postal Services are important. They provide a means of
contact between people and organizations across the
world. Even people in the remotest areas, many thousands
of kilometers apart and in different parts of the globe
can communicate with each other as long as they both
enjoy the benefits of a reliable national Postal
Service. This simple form of communication is generally
acknowledged as being very inexpensive in comparison
with other forms of communication. |
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The road to providing a reliable, swift and efficient
Postal Service is one that demands constant attention.
Costs have to be minimized to keep charges down and
customers happy, while service quality is maximized. The
balance between cost and quality, together with
providing new services required by customer's means that
Postal Administrations must journey along a very long
road; indeed, this is a road that never ends. But there
has always been a beginning… |
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The Post Office in Qatar began operating modestly in
1950 with just 6 staff. Nevertheless the story begins in
earnest in May 1963 when the State of Qatar took full
responsibility for its own Postal Services.
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From that date, what is now the General Postal
Corporation (GPC) sought to improve their services to
the public against a rapidly increasing population and a
vast and almost unprecedented rate of development. This
led, ultimately and some 25 years later to a modern,
purpose-built new sorting center and headquarters
equipped with the latest technologically advanced
equipment and designed to cater for the country's
requirements well into the next century.
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As well as the prestigious main building on the Doha
skyline next to the Corniche, there are presently 27
Postal
Branches
(18 with PO
Box facilities) in service in the country including the
Airport Post Office which operates 24 hours daily.
Additionally, a number of Postal Agencies provide
limited services as well thereby ensuring that Postal
Services cover the entire country.
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When the first Post Office was opened in Doha in 1950,
the GPC used British stamps but in Rupee denominations
and with the country name, "Qatar" over-printed in
English. The first date-stamp was used for Registered
letters at Doha Post Office on 17 May 1953, and in 1956
and 1960 the first Post Offices outside the capital were
opened in Dukhan and Umm Said respectively. This was
followed in 1961 with Qatar's issue of the first
official postage stamp for the State. |
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In 1963 the GPC forwarded just three direct despatches
of mail to other countries but now there are more than
one hundred direct despatches covering the entire world.
165 Posting Boxes have been installed throughout the
country from which mail is collected up to 4 times every
day. |
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In the early years there were just 900 Private PO Boxes
on one site, but the rapid development of the country
forced expansion and in 1988 a total of 25,000
electronically operated PO Boxes, the first of their
kind in the world, were installed in the Main Post
Office. Elsewhere, there are more than 12,000
conventional PO Boxes at 17 other branches around the
country.
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The GPC is a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU),
the Arab Postal Committee (APC) and the GCC Postal
Committee. Qatar hosted the first conference to
inaugurate the Gulf Postal Organization in April 1977
which later changed its name to the GCC Postal
Committee. |
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The GPC traditionally participates in all postal
conferences held by the UPU, the APC and the GCC Postal
Committee and issues commemorative stamps for a variety
of local and international occasions. Staff are trained
in-house, but to keep abreast of postal development
world-wide they are also trained at the Arab Postal
Institute and in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. |
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The GPC is anxious to develop its services to its
customers while maintaining a firm grip on charges.
Every endeavor is made by the GPC to deliver mail
promptly and to despatch mail anywhere in the world at
the earliest opportunity. They keep as tight a rein on
costs as possible but seek to provide solutions for the
needs of their customers in an ever-changing
environment. The GPC was the first Postal Administration
in the Gulf to speed the despatch of Sea Mail by air,
and charges for letters, post cards, printed matter,
parcels, small packets, newspapers and magazines have
only increased once in almost 20 years as a matter of
GPC policy. |
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The world is changing faster than ever before and Postal
Administrations are not immune to these changes; the
postal future is thus quite daunting. However, in
October 2001, specifically with the future in mind the
GPC became an independent corporation. This important
change is designed to enable the corporation to compete
internationally, to meet its customer's needs and to
provide a platform for the future service reliability of
the business and to benefit the citizen's of Qatar. |
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