October 9 is celebrated worldwide as World Post Day. This year marks 144 years since the creation of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The Union was established on October 9, 1874 in Berne (Switzerland).
 
Azerbaijan became a member of the UPU in 1993. And since that time the World Post Day has also been widely celebrated in our country.
 
Over the past 15 years, Azerbaijan has been actively involved in most events of the UPU and work of its highest legislative bodies and continues its activities in this direction. Azerbaijan was elected to the UPU governing bodies - the Administrative Council (2004 and 2008) and the Postal Operations Council (2008 and -2016), and was represented in their various projects and working groups. Today, the cooperation with the UPU is expanding further.
 
The UPU, which is a UN specialized agency, has been providing technical assistance to Azerbaijani Post within the development programme in recent years.
 
In turn, the Azerbaijani Post, responding to UPU appeals, provides assistance in restoring the postal infrastructure of some countries affected by natural disasters and war.
 
Azerbaijani post is becoming one of the leading administrations in the world. For the first time in the world, the Azerbaijani Post launched the project “Development of financial services” through the loan provided by the World Bank in 2005. The project successfully came to an end in 2010.  As a result of the project implementation, Azerbaijani Post has become one of the most competitive structures for the provision of postal financial services.
 
Today, there are Shebeke service centers in order to provide citizens with high-quality telecommunications, postal and other services. There are eight Shebeke service centers across the country. Five of them are located in Baku, the other three are in Jalilabad, Zagatala and Sumgayit.
 
Measures are underway to cover all Baku districts with Shebeke service centers. At the next stage, it is planned to open Shebeke service centers in other cities and regions of the country.
 
In addition to traditional telecommunication and postal services, Shebeke services centers provide banking, financial and tourist services, as well as ticket sales. It also organizes the sale of local and international payment cards, compulsory insurance, electronic signatures, envelopes, postage stamps and postcards, services for money transfers, budget and utility payments, payments for the State Mortgage Fund, as well as registration of mobile devices.
 
Today, the Azerbaijani Post also functions as an international transit mail-processing center. According to the relevant project, e-commerce products ordered from China are imported into Azerbaijan, Azerpost sorts these goods in the transit center and forwards them to some 20 countries of the world. Mail transportation service is carried out through the airlines Silk Way and AZAL.
 
As a result of purposeful work, Azerbaijan has repeatedly been rated highly in the postal area at the international level. In particular, our country in different years was awarded UPU Gold and Silver Certificates for express delivery of mail (EMS).