International package delivery companies FedEx and UPS do not work in Belarus

• 8.05.2008, 17:44

International companies UPS, FedEX, TNT and DHL are not parcel carriers at the territory of Belarus. Such a poster emerged in the National airport “Minsk”.

A well-known Belarusian playwright Nikolay Khalezin was the first to raise the issue of receiving parcels via UPS, FedEX, TNT and DHL companies. He brought up the problem in his blog. In an interview to the Charter’97 press-center Khalezin told about difficulties Belarusians meet.

“International networks of mail delivery services are absolutely unavailable for Belarusian customers. It places us in conditions when the country becomes an absolute outcast even in such an issue as package delivery. Even when a person sends us a parcel from a foreign county and pays higher tariff, it doesn’t mean we would receive it in our hands. A person has to go 30 kilometres to the airport to perform customs clearing of his humble parcel send probably by his family member, in one queue with people who perform custom clearing of full trains of goods. It makes people refuse receiving these parcels. For today the number of people who choose not to receive their packages is more than 70%. My opinion is that the Belarusian government doesn’t want to tolerate entry of competitors to the market and wants to have total control over the things sent. And it is known that nobody is sending anything forbidden in such parcels, as things are carefully checked before sending,” the Charter’97 press-center was told by Nikolay Khalezin.