Priority Flat Rate Shipping Boxes to return to FSM Post Offices, Faichuk Post Office in Development

Pictured Above: The Honorable Ginger Porter Mida, Postmaster General of the FSM, shakes hands with His Excellency David W. Panuelo, President of the FSM

FSM Information Services
Press Release
Priority Flat Rate Shipping Boxes to return to FSM Post Offices, Faichuk Post Office in Development

PALIKIR, Pohnpei—One of the outcomes of a June 2019 meeting between the Postal Service of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Postal Service of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Postal Service of the Republic of Palau, and the U.S. Postal Service in Honolulu is the return of priority flat rate shipping boxes to the Freely Associated States including the FSM. The Honorable Ginger Porter Mida, Postmaster General of the FSM, updated His Excellency David W. Panuelo with this news in a June 27th 2019 letter and a July 2nd 2019 meeting that also included updates on other forthcoming and ongoing projects and activities within the Postal Service.
“We’re just waiting for the order [of boxes] to arrive,” said Postmaster General Mida. “All the Freely Associated States are getting [priority flat rate shipping boxes] back.”
Priority flat rate shipping boxes offer a standardized size that, regardless of a given box’s weight, costs the same to ship to other post offices in the FSM or throughout the United States. This will assist citizens of the FSM in shipping goods to and from family members living in the U.S. and will have a pronounced effect on decreasing the cost of shipping goods for the citizens who can least afford it.
Postmaster General Mida advised that the U.S. Postal Service has re-committed to its partnership with the Postal Service of the FSM. “We have an excellent new team in the U.S.,” the Postmaster General said. This team includes, but is not limited to, Postmaster of the Pacific Region Greg Wonly, based in Honolulu; Freemont M. Rigel, Executive Director of the U.S. Postal Service’s International Strategy & Business Development Support; and Dawn Johnson and Richard Jones, both International Operations Specialists in the U.S. Postal Service.
“This team is a fresh group that is going to be visiting our islands, seeing the movement of our mail, and how we are doing our work—as agreed in the Compact of Free Association,” Postmaster General Mida said. “They’re going to help us…which will be beneficial to us, because our mail is actually considered U.S. domestic mail.”
Postmaster General Mida also briefed President Panuelo on ongoing projects to improve postal services within the FSM, including the development of a Post Office in the Faichuk region of Chuuk State. Faichuk alone has a greater population than either Kosrae State or Yap State, and its residents must travel multiple hours via boat to the Post Office in Weno. Thus, the presence of a Post Office in Faichuk will assist underserved citizens’ access to these essential services.
“We already purchased a piece of land in Faichuk for the FSM National Government’s development area, and the Post Office is [a priority],” Postmaster General Mida said.
The Postmaster General also informed President Panuelo that the Postal Service will soon have scanning machines for ensuring the security of incoming and outgoing mail, and that the substation in Weno is being reassigned and rebuilt.