China is preparing to set up a new postcode system that enables each resident to have an exclusive personal address identity in the future.
Once complete, every individual will have a personal postcode in the system, which allows for accurate package receipt from international and domestic delivery.
It will also promote the "unmanned process of the postal express industry and reduce costs," the Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.
The Institute of Big Data Research of Peking University and China's Development &Research Center of State Post Bureau released the plan at a joint seminar, according to Xinhua.
Different from a traditional six-numbered postcode, which cannot identify a small area, the personal address identity is accurate for individuals, experts said.
Chinese mainlanders can use their national identity cards to link to the personal address identity, which will record user's information such as addresses and telephone numbers.
Delivery times will be reduced 71 percent, delivery staff 41 percent and total delivery costs 44 percent after the system is established, predicted Zhou Xiaoguang, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
Some internet users hailed the upgrade while others worried about privacy.
There are about 180 billion packages dispatched daily in China, producing countless data among which geographical location information is of vital importance, Zeng Junshan, head of the post office development and research center, said at the seminar.
The postcode system cannot fit the development of the increasingly complicated express delivery environment, Chinese analysts said.
