Representatives of the member countries of Kahala Posts Group including President Kim Kee-deok of Korea Post, are lined up holding hands during the 2016 KPG CEO Board Meeting July 26-27, the 14th annual meeting in Seoul.(Photo: Korea Post)

The Kahala Posts Group, an alliance of 10 postal services, kicked off its 14th annual meeting in Seoul on July 27. At the meeting, chief executives from Korea, the United States, China, Japan and six other countries discussed ways to improve the quality of EMS, or express mail service, and exchanged ideas to further develop delivery service for electronic commerce, according to the Korea Post.

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the Korea Post jointly hosted the 14th Kahala Posts Group (KPG) on July 27 in Seoul with all 10 major member countries of the organization in attendance.

The key subjects that were dealt with include an on-time postal delivery rate of 96 percent and an increase in the number of countries that have guaranteed postal delivery service around the world.

The gathering of 10 postal authorities also discussed the exchange of information on the delivery of parcels before they are delivered and real time tracking information exchange, among other topics.

At the gathering, talks on topping KPG’s 96 percent on-time delivery goal, along with expanding the number of countries that guarantee addressees receive their mail on-time, took center stage.

Transactions among KPG members took up 59 percent of the EMS market in 2015, owing to continued efforts to upgrade service quality. As for Korea, mail sent to KPG countries annually increased 10 percent over the past 10 years, the Korea Post noted.

“This year’s conference will serve as a stepping stone for Korea to diversify the international mail delivery service, and leap forward as a leading express business provider,” said Kim Kee-deok, president of Korea Post.

The group of 10 major postal operators signed a deal to make use of U.S. software technology to help e-commerce merchants expand into other countries.

The Kahala Posts Group, which includes national postal operators from Australia, China, France, Japan, Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the United States, will be making use of a platform provided by New Jersey-based Amber Road. The global trade management (GTM) platform should make it easier for customers of the postal services to send items abroad.

The system will provide consumers with full visibility over the costs involved in buying online across national borders, calculating total landed costs for cross-border sales, including the various administrative and customs fees.

It will also identify and produce the documentation needed for global shipping and perform screening for restricted parties and trade compliance checks.

The deal with Amber Road was signed on behalf of the group by the International Post Corporation, which represents postal operator members internationally.

“Given the tremendous shipping volumes and global reach of KPG member organizations we are particularly proud to be affiliated with this project,” said John Preuninger, president of Amber Road. “It’s hard to imagine an organization with more dynamic global trade requirements than KPG. We look forward to bringing our deep global trade management experience, content and software to bear on this exciting initiative.”

The Kahala Group is an alliance of 10 postal operators — Australia Post, China Post, Correos, La Poste Group, Hongkong Post, Japan Post, Korea Post, Royal Mail, SingPost and USPS.

Combined, the members of the group can reach 176,000 retail locations and 328 million delivery points.