Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov, as well as representatives of federal executive bodies and organisations, will attend the meeting.

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- Apart from the Russian Post federal state unitary enterprise, over 350 private operators provide postal services in the Russian Federation. Despite somewhat tough competition, Russian Post continues to dominate the postal services market.

A new draft federal law On Postal Services is currently being coordinated. The new postal services structure is one of the draft document’s innovations. Depending on their designation, organisation and mailing procedures, postal services are subdivided into general-purpose postal services and courier postal services. The draft document does not limit the number of general-purpose postal services operators. Any operator of general-purpose postal services will have the right of non-discriminatory access to the postal infrastructure.

- The draft law stipulates a number of provisions, which are called on to expand the use of information and communications technologies in the postal-services sector. For instance, it will be possible to send e-mail messages and to provide official e-mail addresses and e-mail accounts, which can also be used to send official documents.

The draft law contains no restrictions on the conversion of the Russian Post into a shareholding company.

- Currently, about 42,000 Russian Post offices employing over 350,000 specialists operate all over the country.

The enterprise annually delivers about 1.5 billion letters, 50 million parcels, 1.7 billion newspapers and magazines. Its employees also deliver pension and benefits payments to over 50% of Russian retirees.