In 1980, the Government embarked on postal service reform with the creation, by Decree No. 16/80 of 15 September of the Council of Ministers, of the new postal corporation, the National Posts and Telegraphs Corporation of Angola, a State Economic Unit.

This corporation’s structure provided for a Director General and two Assistant Directors General, one responsible for postal services and the other for human resource management and financial matters.

The first postal law, issued in 1987, defined postal services as a State monopoly, and sought to lay the foundations for an effective communications sector and infrastructure for the good of society.

Given the current changes on the world market for postal products, and the new strategies adopted by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) at its Congresses, the Government has made it a programme priority, in the communications field, to gradually liberalize postal activities by fostering competition. Law No. 13/94 ñ the Law on Delimitation of Sectors of Economic Activity of 12 September 1994 ñ opened postal activities up to competition. This law has the following objectives: ñ adapt the broad lines for the targeted development of a market economy; ñ reduce direct Government intervention in national economic life; ñ improve the potential of services and mobilize fiscal resources; ñ improve and maintain equilibrium in the services supplied. Broadly speaking, in creating this law, the Government aimed to redefine the limits of the “State reserve” and thereby considerably reduce the latter’s field of application and make it more flexible by adopting the concepts and system of “absolute reserve”, “controlled reserve” and “relative reserve”.

The postal sector operates in a system which combines State reserve and relative reserve elements.

The State reserve element covers communications by normal postal means, whereas the relative reserve element covers complementary postal services, i.e. those postal services open to competition.

In application of this law, and given the evolution of postal services at international level and of the Angolan postal market, it seemed essential to change the legislative framework of postal services.

Consequently, the current law No. 4/01 ñ the Basic Law on Postal Services of 23 March 2001 ñ was drawn up and published.

This law guarantees the existence of a universal postal service that is capable of satisfying communications needs throughout the national territory. It provides for a series of reserved services, and another set of services which are open to competition.

Reference: www.upu.int. Universal Postal Union. Status and structures of postal administrations. June 2006