The process of reorganization of the Ukrposhta state postal enterprise into a public joint-stock company will be completed on 1 March 2017.

Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Yurii Lavreniuk announced this at a press conference on Monday, the UNIAN news agency reports.

“The corporatization of Ukrposhta began in the summer, and the Ukrposhta public joint-stock company will already be in operation on 1 March, i.e. in less than one month, with compliance with all the procedures required by the active legislation," the deputy minister said.

As reported, Ukrposhta’s General Director Ihor Smelianskyi said in an interview with the CFTS in August last year that Ukrposhta would be transformed into a public joint-stock company in the first quarter of 2017.

The transformation of Ukrposhta into a public joint-stock company is expected to make the company’s operations more efficient and introduce a number of changes. "First of all, there will be a new level of transparency in management. That is, we will submit reports based on international standards…" Smelianskyi said.

According to him, the corporatization of Ukrposhta will also make it independent of the Ministry of Infrastructure and transform it into a normal company. "Today, I am a direct subordinate of the minister of infrastructure. The minister provides a lot of support, but I cannot go to him for business issues every day. A normal company should have a board of directors and a supervisory board. Currently, all state-owned enterprises operate based on financial plans approved for one year, they cannot deviate from these plans, and changes to them need to be agreed with several ministries. That takes time… I hope that business processes will be faster when the joint-stock company is created," Smelianskyi said. 

Ukrposhta is currently Ukraine’s national postal agency. It has a network of about 12,000 branches throughout Ukraine and employs 76,000 people.