The 42nd Symposium on Novel Technologies in Postal and Telecommunications Traffic, PosTel 2024, was held at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering in Belgrade. In the introductory part, the attendees were adressed by the Chair of the Symposium Organizational Committee prof. dr Dejan Marković, Chair of the Symposium Program Committee prof. dr Valentina Radojičić, Dean of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering in Belgrade prof. dr Milorad Kilibarda, Assistant Minister for Electronic Communications and Postal Traffic at the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications Katarina Tomašević, Director of the Postal Services Department of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Postal Services Ljubomir Ostojić and acting Director General of the Public Enterprise „Post of Serbia“ Zoran Anđelković.

Assistant Minister for Electronic Communications and Postal Traffic Katarina Tomašević briefly presented the Ministry activities in the current year, highlighting that the Draft Law on Postal Services was already prepared and is currently being synchronized across the sectors. The draft of the law is to be presented in front of the National Assembly by the end of this year.

Director of the Postal Services Department at RATEL, Ljubomir Ostojić presented last year’s postal market data, stressing that, in 2023, the postal service market generated revenues amounted to around 34 billion dinars, representing an increase by 14% compared to the year before. This growth is largely due to the expansion of e-commerce, reflected in the fact that in the third quarter of this year only, the volume of express items grew by 18%, in comparison to the same quarter of the previous year, mainly as a result of the traffic stemming from the chinese e-commerce platform „Temu“. He added that passing of the new Law on Postal Services would represent  a step closer towards the modernization and digitalization of the postal sector, specially aiming to improve user protection and operator’s efficiency. Furthermore, the alignment with the European standards and extension of RATEL’s competencies would contribute to the stability and development of postal services in the Republic of Serbia.

At the Symposium, RATEL presented a co-authored paper titled „Universal postal service  sustainability model“ by the Director Dragan Pejović, Director of the Postal Services Department Ljubomir  Ostojić and Head of the Postal Regulation Division Slađana Tomašević.

Over the 42 years of its existence, PosTel has built a reputation and reached a leading position in the areas of research and scientific expertise, gathering an impressionable number of prominent names in the area of postal and telecommunication traffic, both from Serbia and the region. This year’s symposium was themed around the functioning and the evolution of postal and telecommunications sectors, including models of global and national development, advanced information and communication technology, architecture and services, management, postal and telecommunication traffic engineering, postal and telecommunications regulation, as well as the analysis and modelling of postal and telecommunication traffic.