Currently, the news of China establishing the world's largest delivery network by scale, benefiting the most people, has become a hot topic of discussion in the media and among the public. According to data from the State Post Bureau, express delivery business volume reached 198.95 billion parcels, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%; cumulative express delivery business revenue reached 1.5 trillion yuan, up 6.5% year-on-year, ranking first in the world for 12 consecutive years. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the breadth and depth of postal services in rural and border areas significantly improved, with the number of operating outlets increasing nearly 1.5 times compared to five years ago, achieving postal service coverage for all border villages nationwide. The year 2026 marks the beginning of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. Faced with the major task of serving the national unified market and the industry's entry into a new development stage, there is a pressing need to cultivate business entities with international competitiveness. How will the postal and courier industry ascend to the next level?

Promoting high-quality development in the industry is the core direction set by the 2026 National Postal Work Conference, which proposes driving industry growth centered on "two promotions and three enhancements," with the foremost priority being "promoting high-quality development in the industry." High-quality development is the inevitable path for the postal and courier industry to transition from scale expansion to value creation. Since entering the new era, the postal and courier sector, particularly the express delivery segment, has proactively adapted to development trends. Leveraging China's super-large market advantage, it has carved out a path of synergistic development between express delivery and online shopping, but this has also led to a path dependency on scale and speed. Currently, the domestic e-commerce market is gradually shifting from "incremental expansion" to "stock cultivation." The traditional development model of "trading price for volume" is becoming unsustainable, necessitating a shift in the industry's focus from "quantitative growth" to "qualitative improvement."

So, how can the development focus be effectively shifted towards high-quality development? First, it is essential to pioneer new avenues for value growth. Courier companies must break free from the "red ocean" competition of basic delivery services and actively extend their reach upstream and downstream in the industrial chain. By leveraging comparative advantages in networks, organization, and technology, they should expand into areas such as cold chain logistics, express freight, and supply chain management, offering customized and integrated solutions to accelerate their transformation into comprehensive logistics service providers. Simultaneously, they must evolve from passively "adapting to demand" to proactively "empowering industries." By deeply embedding themselves in related sectors like advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture, and utilizing data and technology to help them reduce costs and increase efficiency, courier companies can transform from mere "movers" into "co-creators of value."

Second, the industry's development ecosystem needs optimization. In the era of a stock market, the competitive focus should shift from "dividing the pie" to "collectively improving the pie." Vicious price wars erode corporate profits and damage the industry ecosystem, and must be curbed. A scientific evaluation system centered on quality, innovation, and user experience should be established to guide the market towards a consensus of "high quality commands a high price." Furthermore, companies should be urged to optimize their entire process quality management systems, strengthen精细化 management of末端 outlets, and ensure the stability and reliability of services and networks.

Third, concerted efforts are needed to cultivate new quality productive forces. Confronted with the dual waves of technological revolution and consumption upgrades, technological innovation must be placed at the core. This involves deeply integrating digital technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things into business scenarios, and actively promoting the application of new technologies such as intelligent sorting and unmanned delivery. Concurrently, optimizing business structures through format and model innovation can reduce reliance on单一 businesses and markets, building a diversified and resilient business portfolio. New quality productive forces will open up new market spaces and inject strong endogenous momentum into the industry's development. These three measures completely break away from the industry's path dependency on traditional development models; each represents a "tough nut to crack" that requires攻坚克难. Precisely because they are difficult, they更能彰显 the boldness and courage of reform, constituting genuine reform and innovation.

The term "governance" should not be perceived solely as the responsibility of government regulatory authorities. Promoting high-efficiency governance reflects a systemic upgrade in the industry from "management" to "governance." Its core lies in driving a transition from industry management to a multi-stakeholder co-governance model involving government supervision, corporate self-discipline, and societal collaboration. Through robust regulation, optimized services, safeguarding底线, and uniting人心, the aim is to continuously foster a fair, orderly, safe, stable, and dynamic development ecosystem. This can be implemented through the following four specific pathways.

First, optimizing the business environment is crucial. This involves continuously improving the legal, regulatory, standards, and policy systems to facilitate the free flow of production factors and products within the delivery network. Promoting comprehensive rectification of "involution-style" competition, strictly implementing fair competition reviews, strengthening regulations against unfair competition, and健全失信惩戒 mechanisms are essential to create a fair, market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment.

Second, innovating government supervision models is necessary. This entails strengthening in-process and post-event supervision, utilizing digital tools like big data and intelligent analysis to achieve a leap from "manual inspections" to "intelligent supervision." Deepening the "放管服" reforms, simplifying approval processes, and fully stimulating the vitality of market entities are key steps.

Third, strengthening corporate compliance foundations is imperative. This involves压实ing corporate primary responsibility, especially the unified management responsibility of corporate headquarters for全网 services, safety, and compliance. Guiding companies to improve their modern corporate systems,健全 internal control and compliance systems, and embedding regulations and standards into business processes is vital. Leveraging the organizational role of courier associations to promote the formation and strict adherence to self-regulatory conventions helps build an ecosystem of "self-restraint and良性竞合."

Then, promoting全链条协同共治 is essential. Courier companies need to build development communities with末端 outlets and franchisees that share benefits and risks, moving away from simplistic "replacing management with penalties." Empowering末端 networks through reasonable profit distribution can激发 their vitality. It is also crucial to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of couriers, strengthen training, care, and career development support, enhance their sense of identity and responsibility, and solidify the foundation for the industry's stable operation. High-quality development and high-efficiency governance are mutually reinforcing and complementary. High-quality development lays the material foundation for high-efficiency governance, while high-efficiency governance provides the institutional guarantee for high-quality development.

The 2026 National Postal Work Conference部署了 three major tasks: "enhancing the capacity and level of rural delivery services, enhancing the capacity and level of international delivery services, and enhancing the capacity to serve industries." Each task is fundamental to the industry's foundation and future potential. They must be treated as key牵引 forces, implemented with genuine effort to open new prospects for high-quality development. Among these, enhancing rural delivery service capacity and level is the essential path to consolidating the foundation and unleashing potential. The operational nature of the postal and courier industry involves end-to-end networks, where both urban and rural areas are equally important. Against the backdrop of the nation's ongoing efforts to ameliorate imbalanced urban-rural development, the capacity and level of rural courier services serve as a critical benchmark for testing network efficiency.

China's rural delivery service network primarily consists of the universal service network, comprehensively covered by postal enterprises, complemented by the commercial services of private courier companies built upon it. The former focuses on foundational, safety-net民生 construction, while the latter possesses a degree of普惠性 and commercial nature. Regarding improving the universal service network, the State Post Bureau proposes to "adhere to doing our best within our capabilities, upholding the public service attribute and statutory duties of postal universal service." It summarizes the direction for rural postal universal service work with 12 characters: "service innovation,功能融合, network opening." This approach helps address traditional issues like outdated services and单一 functions, while also前瞻性 guiding new initiatives to revitalize network resources and enhance network value.

Simultaneously, based on the new rural delivery logistics system jointly built by various courier companies since the "14th Five-Year Plan," the State Post Bureau proposes, on the foundation of consolidating阶段性 achievements, to further use three new "yardsticks" – "services can reach down, the network remains stable, and the masses find it useful" – to guide development direction. "Reaching down" tests决心 and coverage; "remaining stable" tests the business model and resilience; "being useful" tests quality and value. Only by advancing these three aspects in tandem can the industry better "smooth the channels for agricultural products to reach urban markets and for industrial goods to reach the countryside," truly transforming the industry's network advantages, channel advantages, and organizational advantages into supporting forces for "serving the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and promoting integrated urban-rural development."

Enhancing the capacity and level of international delivery services is a critical leap for the postal and courier industry to expand its development space and增强韧性. The importance of international delivery service capability cannot be overstated. It must match China's status as the world's second-largest economy and largest trading nation, contribute to enhancing the stability and competitiveness of China's industrial and supply chains, and adapt to the needs of the new development格局. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the development vitality and international competitiveness of China's postal and courier enterprises continued to grow: 2 companies entered the Fortune Global 500, and 7 companies entered the China 500. The influence of Chinese courier brands has steadily increased in emerging markets like Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Latin America, with courier logistics technology equipment and intelligent solutions accelerating their global presence.

Enhancing international delivery service capability is by no means an overnight achievement. It is important to note that the current complex, conservative, and anti-economic globalization international environment has delayed and will continue to affect the internationalization pace of Chinese courier companies. In response, the State Post Bureau first emphasizes the systematic enhancement of硬实力, namely "focusing on strengthening the capacity building of 'trunk lines —转运 — warehousing —配送'." This is precisely the area requiring strategic resolve and sustained investment, where each link must be steadily strengthened to ultimately form a well-connected, safe, and efficient international delivery network.

Subsequently, efforts must focus on "continuously optimizing international logistics organization models," concentrating on the two major fields of "cross-border e-commerce and 'Made in China'." Strengthening "information coordination, resource coordination, and business coordination" implies re-evaluating China's position in the international division of labor and deeply embedding into the global trade and production value chain to "contribute to the security and smooth flow of international industrial and supply chains." Furthermore, given the significant uncertainty in the international environment, it is necessary to "focus on researching, judging, and adapting to changes in international trade rules and customs监管 policies, seizing opportunities in complex environments, and actively participating in the formulation of international rules." Judging from recent developments in international diplomacy, leading the external exchange and development of industries like courier services through state-level diplomacy could also prove to be an effective path.

Enhancing the capacity to serve industries is the core engine for the transformation, upgrading, and value enhancement of the postal and courier industry. Modern logistics connects production on one end and consumption on the other,高度 integrating and merging services like transportation, warehousing, sorting, distribution, and information. It is a vital support for extending industrial chains, enhancing value chains, and building supply chains. As the construction of China's modern industrial system深入推进, the efficient support of logistics as the "sinews and脉络" becomes increasingly important. In this regard, the State Post Bureau emphasizes "focusing on exerting the industry's leading role in the field of modern logistics." This refers to the advantages of the postal and courier industry, such as high efficiency in combined transportation, high levels of informatization and organization, high cost-effectiveness, and extensive service coverage, necessitating it to take the lead in serving the modern industrial system.

"Actively embedding into the operation of the real economy" requires industry enterprises not to stop at merely承接ing logistics demand, but to become an organic component of industrial and supply chains. Particularly, the expansion direction of "actively developing supply chain logistics" and the upgrade direction of "transforming into comprehensive logistics integrators" aim to build "a new development paradigm characterized by智能化, greenization, and integration." The ultimate goal is to "deeply integrate and co-create value with advanced manufacturing, modern agriculture, cultural tourism, and other industries." In this process, courier companies can not only escape the dilemma of homogenized price competition and pioneer new, high-value-added service tracks but also achieve resonance between their own high-quality development and serving the construction of the national modern industrial system.

In summary, the "three enhancements" are interconnected and organically unified, collectively forming the pillars for the high-quality development of the postal and courier industry in the new era. Effectively implementing the "three enhancements" means grasping the "bull's nose" of the next phase of development. By boldly exploring and innovating resolutely along this direction, the industry can effectively开创 a new局面 where postal and courier services contribute to the Chinese path to modernization.