World Post Day - 09 October 2014

Celebrated around the world on 9 October, World Post Day is being marked in Portugal today with a ceremony to commemorative the anniversary of the establishment of the UPU in 1874. The event, which is being organised and hosted by FPC - Fundação Portuguesa das Comunicações (Portuguese Communications Foundation), will be attended by Fátima Barros, Chairman of ANACOM's Management Board and President of FPC's General Council, and by Francisco de Lacerda, Chairman and CEO of CTT - Correios de Portugal.

During this session, prizes will be awarded in "The 2014 Best Letter" competition, which this year is centred on the theme "Write a letter describing how music can touch lives". Prizes were awarded to João Nuno Freire dos Santos from Lamego in the 9-11 years age group, and to Joana Catarina Pombo Belo from Sintra in the 12-15 years age group.

The theme selected by UPU for the 2015 letter-writing competition is: "Tell us about the world you want to grow up in".

The ceremony includes the launch of the "Portalegre tapestries" stamp issue and a visit to the "postal mechanization" nucleus of the permanent exhibition "Overcoming Distance: Five Centuries of Communications in Portugal" and the show "Highlights - What is UPU?", and also the opening of the exhibition" Portalegre Tapestries -Portuguese Stamp Art".

The session will be closed by Portugal's Minister of Economy, António Pires de Lima.