The press service of Wildberries provided comments to Podrobno.uz regarding the inclusion of its employees in the supervisory board of the national postal operator UzPost.
The company explained that the goal of the marketplace managers' participation in the board is to modernize the postal operator and increase the level and pace of service provision. Wildberries noted that the presence of representatives from a major trading platform in management will have a positive impact on the development of the entire e-commerce sector in Uzbekistan.
Representatives of Wildberries also guaranteed that the postal service would function in the usual mode. Nevertheless, it is expected that the operator will receive additional opportunities for expansion thanks to investments and technical support.
Earlier, the day before, UzPost shareholders decided to prematurely terminate the powers of the previous supervisory board and approved a new composition, which included five representatives from Wildberries & Russ structures. At the same meeting, the issue of obtaining a loan of 100 billion soums from Wb int export was discussed, but voting on this issue did not take place, and the decision was not adopted.
Previously, there were reports about the possible privatization of UzPost. Economist Otabek Bakirov suggested that the national operator could be sold to 'one of the northern marketplaces,' with experts linking this to Wildberries. At that time, UzPost confirmed that it was studying the possibility of attracting an investor, and the Anti-Corruption Agency demanded transparency in the privatization process. Neither the government nor Wildberries provided official comments on this deal.