During the 27^th Universal Postal Congress held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Masahiko Metoki, Senior Vice President of International Affairs at Japan Post, was elected as the next UPU Director General, and Marjan Osvald, Senior Adviser to the Executive Management of the Post of Slovenia, as the new Deputy Director General of the UPU International Bureau, both for a 4-year term in office, with the possibility of reelection, and both taking up their duties as of January 1, 2022.

 „I promise that I will always work for all the UPU member countries by listening to each voice carefully and by considering your differences,“ said Mr. Metoki, who was elected in the first round of voting with 102 votes. The present UPU Director General Bishar A. Hussein added that member countries have expressed their confidence in Mr. Metoki and in Japan to lead the Universal Postal Union for the next cycle and congratulated the Government and the delegation of Japan on this remarkable achievement.

Mr. Osvald was elected Deputy Director General after two voting rounds and promised that he would “fight for accountability, transparency and business ethics.”

At the 27^th Congress, new member countries representatives to the Council of Administration, a body that governs the Union between two Congresses, and the Postal Operations Council whose activities require the participation of the member countries’ postal operators, were also elected.

The Congress will end today, after a three-week period of work, with more information on the above event, ministerial conference and held sessions to be found on the following links:

https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Postal-Union/About-UPU/Bodies/Congress/Elected-UPU-Leadership

https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Postal-Union/About-UPU/Bodies/Congress#ministerial-conference

https://www.upu.int/en/Events/Side-Events-27th-Universal-Postal-Congress