MANILA, Philippines – The first known postal document, found in Egypt, dates back to 255 B.C. Even before that time, however, postal services existed as messengers traveled long distances to serve monarchs.

Subsequently, religious orders and educational institutions also made use of postal services to deliver their own news and information. Relay stations were set up along the messengers’ routes to speed up delivery. Eventually, private individuals were allowed to use the messengers to communicate with one another.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the exchange of mail between countries was largely governed by bilateral postal agreements. But by the 19th century, the web of bilateral agreements had become so complex that it began to impede the rapidly developing trade and commercial sectors. Order and simplification were needed in the international postal services. Subsequently, three individuals – Sir Rowland Hill of England, Montgomery Blair of the United States, and Heinrich von Stephen – took a series of steps that laid the ground for an international postal union. On October 9, 1874, the Treaty of Bern was signed establishing the General Postal Union. Membership in the Union grew so quickly during the following three years that its name was changed to the Universal Postal Union in 1878.

Despite advances in information and communications technology, postal services remain an important motor of the global economy. With more than five million people employed in the world’s postal services, they annually process and deliver an estimated 433 billion domestic letter-post items, 5.5 billion international items, and 6 billion ordinary parcels. Some 660,000 postal establishments make the postal network the largest physical distribution network in the world.

Economists estimate that postal services generally contribute 1 percent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to a study by the Envelope Manufacturers Association Foundation for Paper-Based Communications’ Institute for Postal Studies, there are approximately 8.4 million jobs and over US$1 trillion in revenue associated with the mailing industry in the United States.

Aside from delivering mail, at least 70 posts worldwide provide postal savings account services. On average, postal financial services account for 15 percent of global postal revenues, which in 2007, reached US$340 billion.

Postal services remain an important driver of many national and even the global economy. Thus, in observing World Post Day, we congratulate the men and women of the postal services whose work continues to facilitate communication and fuels productive engagements within countries and across the world.