The Cambodia Postal Service

By Kimann

E-Commerce to wait until the Cambodian Postal Service is ready

Over the past several years, news on Cambodia Ministry of Post and Telecommunication (MPTC) in the media tends tend to be less except a few news on giving new licenses to new telecom companies.

Most of the Cambodians, who are involving in mailing, doubt about what exactly MPTC is doing at doing. One of the most criticized functions of the MPTC is The Postal Service. Postal Service is most important in every country for E-commerce. Malaysia for example has enjoyed E-commerce from their most reliable postal services and if the country's postal service is not reliable and uncountable then Cambodia has two wait for 10 more years until those people at the MPTC retire and new next generation of professionals are in place.

The current civil servants at MPTC tend to be those old sheep who try to take the opportunity, before their retirement, to make extra money popularly called "corruption" in Cambodia. Their works is of most inefficient and bureaucratic.

Taking money from mailers is not as much important than the value of the lost mails and packages that never reach their destinations. Tourists and local people are having similar complaints on the Cambodian Postal Service but they keep such disappointments inside their hearts because they do not know how to file their complaints and with who.

The above mentioned complaints on corruption, bureaucratic and inefficiency are not much worse than the bad attitudes and habits of opening postal customer' mail or package for valuable items. If the items worth what they want, they would keep the item for themselves (better to rephrase this as theft) and throw the mail or package into the rubbish bin.

One story of a man who won the US DV lottery several years ago was perhaps the worse case and painful. A mail containing important document was sent to him from the US States Department but the mail never reached him while the guy had to go to Bangkok to check with the US embassy in Thailand. He spent a lot of money for his trip to Thailand but he lacked additional supported documents. He was disqualified.

Recently I ordered online a small item from Malaysia for my hobby. Due to the size and weight of the item, the vendor provides free shipping to customers through Airmail. Twenty three days after the date of order, I got no news about my package from the Post Office of my package which should be within 7-15 days at the latest to business address.

So what would the ongoing operation of MPTC contribute to the development of the country and e-commerce? What are currently the development of postal code and people mailing address? Who at MPTC is responsible for the postal service?

The Cambodian postal service website is amazing sometimes works and sometimes not working with the slogan boasting of their reliability and best practice.

The above article is my individual opinions. I would condemn those who violate mailing privilege as theft, unethical and must not allow working in the post office or postal services. In other countries, if you open one's mail you will be sued and bring to court for violating people privilege and right but it would be OK if the government of Cambodia wishes Cambodia to be considered as a lawless country.