Apart from offering general postal services, the first step the enterprise took when it became a trading fund was to establish a Postshop at the General Post Office in Central in 1996. This allows tourists to buy postal souvenirs and collectibles, and learn about the history and transition of the local postal service.

Hongkong Post then set its sights on branching out its business and leveraging its position in the marketplace.

In 1997, in response to new market requirements, Hongkong Post introduced its e-Post service, which caters to small to medium-sized businesses and big operations such as utilities.

Through this advanced mailing solution, companies handed over printing, inserting, enveloping and mailing services to Hongkong Post for delivery of account statements, invoices and other communication materials to their clients.

'Hongkong Post Logistics offers a comprehensive service to satisfy inventory and supply chain management needs, leaving customers to concentrate on what they do best,' said Dan Choi, assistant postmaster-general for business development, Hongkong Post.

'This was a huge milestone for us in providing value for customers based on our core postal service and expertise.'

Capitalising on the success of its Logistics programmes and the continuing strength of its traditional postal services, Hongkong Post in 1999 decided to improve and expand its international transport operations.

'We made use of Hong Kong's hub position and by anticipating market requirements, we decided to launch Speedpost Premium Service - an international courier service.

'This allowes for urgent documents, samples and merchandise to be delivered to major cities worldwide by the next working day. Our reach caters to more than 210 worldwide destinations,' Mr Choi said.

Hongkong Post then created a logistics service to cater to growing market demand. It provides a range of supply-chain management services including collection from and return of goods to suppliers, warehouse and inventory management, receipt of customer orders through electronic means, collecting and packing of goods, local and overseas delivery of goods and providing inventory and delivery status reports.

A year later, Hongkong Post launched PayThruPost, whereby customers could settle their government and utility bills at any post office. 'With more than 130 branches in Hong Kong, this new service allowed Hongkong Post to leverage its services and provide a win-win situation for all,' Mr Choi said.

Soon afterwards, the organisation received the certification authority to issue e-Certs for Smart ID cards. Working in tandem with clients who need to conduct high-risk transactions, e-Cert offered added security for customers using their ID cards as a payment method.

'The e-Cert is a type of recognised digital certificate which contains the applicant's name, number, e-mail address, subscriber reference number and a reliance limit of $200,000 for [those aged] 18 years and above,' Mr Choi said.

In 2001, with much success in standard letter mailing and its other businesses, Hongkong Post decided to expand further.

Utilising the Direct Mail approach, customers were given access to the organisation's extensive customer database, allowing them to use Hongkong Post as a direct and effective advertising provider.

This led to the introduction of a service that ensured companies' circulars were delivered to commercial and residential letter boxes.

'The overall advertising spending market share is about $12 billion a year via newspapers or TV,' Mr Choi said.

'We felt the need to introduce a service that provides a reasonable alternative for companies that would like to mass promote their messages to the public. Each circular costs $1, which gives small to medium enterprises good value for their money.'

Mr Choi cited a recent example of the Hong Kong Housing Authority issuing an alert notice to educate the public about the danger of aluminium windows with rusted joints. 'Without spending too much of their budget, they were able to mass roll-out the communication through our circular service. However, much still needs to be done in terms of educating the market about the Direct Mail service.'

A year later, Hongkong Post expanded its business and offered a new service catering to information-related periodicals such as magazines, research papers and company and organisational reports.

'We provide publishers a 20 per cent discount for delivering their publications locally and overseas, which allows us to compete with the courier service operators.

'It also gives customers another alternative to choose from.'

In 2003 Postal Plus was introduced.

The club allows small and medium-sized businesses to obtain information about Hongkong's Postal services, including the Local Courierpost Service, Speedpost, International Mail and Parcel Services, Local Bulk Mail Posting, Logistics Services and Postal Remittance Service.

With more than 25,000 active members, Postal Plus is looking to be the complete package for start-ups.

The next step was to build a commodity for the customer focus group. The 'Heartwarming' stamp collection did just that.

Stepping up from traditional stamp feeds, Hongkong Post introduced stamps as a commodity to mark celebratory occasions such as weddings, birthdays and upcoming movie releases.

'We wanted to have a customised service for the individuals or merchants. When they want to deploy the stamp for commercial use like anniversaries or company events, they can do so by personalising the stamp. We are trying to reach the wider market including households, spouses or parents who would like to commemorate or memorise an event,' Mr Choi said.

Last year, Hongkong Post received a gold level award from the Universal Postal Union for its Express Mail Service for reaching a high level of standard in customer and quality service.

In July this year, six of the world's leading postal administrations - Australia Post, China Post, Hongkong Post, Japan Post, Korea Post and the United States Postal Service committed resources and aligned their networks to provide an enhanced express service in the Asia-Pacific rim markets.

'Each Post has extensive domestic express delivery services and expertise. The linking of these networks provides our customers with a superior date-certain delivery service. Together, we have more than 261 million delivery points throughout the entire network, as well as about 1.6 million employees and 142,000 retail locations,' Mr Choi said.

In future, Hongkong Post plans to introduce a new Bulk Registered Airmail Service for the online shopping market.

Catering to the business trader or e-trader, the new service, in co-operation with eBay, will allow clients to place their orders online and then visit the post office when the goods are delivered, weigh the items and pay for the bulk weight amount.

With the launch of this service at the end of this month, Hongkong Post hopes to stay ahead of the game by becoming a leading provider in postal services across the board.