UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION

PRESS RELEASE



UPU to disseminate Finnish postcodes

UN agency reinforces its role as a unique access point for addressing data

Berne (Switzerland), 25 January 2005

The Universal Postal Union will now disseminate Finland's postcodes on
behalf of that country's postal service, giving business customers simpler
and faster access to the Finnish postcode database in order to ensure the
accuracy of their mail.

An agreement signed yesterday with Finland Post authorizes the UPU to serve
as sole access point for customers requiring Finnish postcodes.

Under this agreement, customers of the UPU's Universal POST*CODE Database
no longer need to sign a separate licensing agreement with Finland, with
the UPU now serving as main contact point for this information.

Similar agreements already exist with the Swiss and French Posts.

Universal POST*CODE is a world database of raw postcode data containing all
available information on the postal addressing systems of the UPU's 190
member countries. Finland Post nevertheless retains the licence that gives
access to its postcode file, now requiring Universal POST*CODE Database
customers to sign a separate contract with it. Under this new agreement,
the UPU will now be responsible for collecting licensing fees for Finland
Post.

According to Edouard Dayan, Director General of the UPU, "customers
requiring Finnish, Swiss or French postcodes now have only one contact to
deal with. This will save them the time and effort of having to go back and
forth between the postal administration in question and the UPU and the
cumbersome task of managing their licence, and will give them a single
postcode addressing format adapted to all countries".

About the Universal Postal Union

The UPU, a United Nations specialized agency based in Berne (Switzerland),
is the primary forum for cooperation between Posts. In addition to
maintaining a genuinely universal network that provides modern products and
services, it establishes the rules for international mail exchanges among
its 190 members and makes recommendations to stimulate mail volume growth
and to improve the quality of service for customers. Each year, five
million employees process and deliver 424 billion domestic letter-post
items, some six billion international items and more than 4.4 billion
ordinary parcels.

CONTACT:

Rhéal LeBlanc
External Communication Department
Universal Postal Union
+41 31 350 32 51 (work)
+41 79 272 04 28 (mobile)