3 Write out other unknown words and word expressions and learn them.

4 Find Russian equivalents.

Postal financial service; technical cooperation; universal postal service; Direct Mail Advisory Board; World Association for Development of Philately; private sector; to lie ahead; terminal dues.

5 Find English equivalents.

Находить решения; почтовая безопасность; поддерживать (сохранять) отношения; совещательный комитет; иметь дело с; почтовое развитие; реальный путь; поддерживать отношения.

6 Answer the questions.

1 What do teams of the Postal Operation Council include?

2 What try the Direct Mail Advisory Board to do?

3 The UPU maintains relation with publishers, doesn’t it?

4 Will the Consultative Committee incorporate postal stakeholders from the private sector?

5 Must the UPU nurture the Committee?

7 Give a summary of the text.

Lesson 4

1 Study the following words.

рromote	повышать (по службе)
aim	цель
prime	расцвет
permanent	постоянный, неизменный
provision	обеспечение
industrial	промышленный
disparity	неравенство, несоответствие
define	определять, устанавливать
ensure	обеспечивать, гарантировать

2 Read and translate the text.

Part of the UN family

As a specialized agency of the United Nations since 1948, the UPU maintains relations and actively coop­erates with other UN organizations, such as the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the United Nations En­vironment Programme. It also works with other inter­national organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Labour Organization. As a member of the UN family, the UPU promotes the general aims of the United Nations, particularly its Millennium Development Goals, while representing the interests of Posts within the various UN programmes. For exam­ple, the UPU has de­fended the Post's role in narrowing the digital di­vide by actively participat­ing in the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003, and will do likewise for the Summit's second phase in Tunis in 2005. Twice a year, the UPU Director General attends meetings of the heads of UN organizations, chaired by Secretary General Kofi Annan and held to find ways to better coordinate UN activities through­out the world.

Promoting the universal postal service

The concept of a universal postal service is fundamen­tal to the UPU. Its prime mission is to promote among its member countries the idea that "all postal users enjoy the right to a universal postal service involving the permanent provision of quality basic postal serv­ices at all points in their territory, at affordable prices". Although universal service is contained in the UPU Acts, the UPU cannot prescribe to member countries and therefore seeks to ensure that they understand what is at stake and offer a service appropriate to their own local realities. Despite the fact that universal postal service has been defined in 67% UPU member coun­tries, there still exist disparities between countries and regions when it comes to postal service coverage. In developing countries, between 14 and 25% of the pop­ulation is still without access to postal services. This contrasts sharply with the high level of universal postal service provision in industrialized countries. The UPU will continue to make governments, particularly those in developing countries, more aware of their role in ensuring the provision of an extensive, good quality, affordable universal service. comes all the more important as efforts to deregulate the postal sector continue. Endorsed for the first time in the Seoul Postal Strategy and reaffirmed in the Beijing Postal Strategy, promotion of the universal postal service is still the number one objective of the Bucharest World Postal Strategy, to be adopted at Congress.

"The world needs the UPU to ensure that one of man's bask rights, the right to communication, is respected. In an unequal world, each area of activity must deal with the exclusion affecting the postal sector and must ensure that all of the Post's stakeholders strive to lessen the effects of that exclusion, and this requires worldwide action."

Paulo Machado Beletn Filho, responsible for strategic postal planning, Brazilian Ministry of Communications