BEIJING — China witnessed remarkable progress in the postal sector over the past 70 years, an official said at a news conference on Sept 17.

The sector raked in 1.2 trillion yuan (about $174.5 billion) of revenue in 2018, over 7,700 times of that in 1949, according to Ma Junsheng, head of the State Post Bureau.

Over 50.7 billion parcels were delivered in 2018 through express delivery, and the average annual growth of express delivery industry stood at 41.5 percent in the past 30 years, said the SPB.

The volume of parcels delivered last year was larger than the aggregate volume of developed economies including the United States, Japan and Europe, contributing over 50 percent to global courier growth, said Ma, adding that the volume of parcels was expected to exceed 60 billion this year.

The country's postal infrastructures saw notable expansion from 1949 to 2018. Postal service branches increased 9.4 times over the past seven decades, reaching 275,000 across the country.

By 2018, China had built more than 230 professional logistics parks for the postal and express delivery industry. Meanwhile, the sector owns three cargo airlines, 115 aircraft and 322,000 automobiles to provide service.

Over 200 smart distribution centers were built, and 320,000 sets of smart express delivery boxes were in operation by the end of last year. Technologies like postal optical character recognition and sorting, electronic waybill and unmanned vehicles took the lead in the world, according to the SPB.

Thanks to over 70 years' efforts, China has direct postal communication with over 200 countries and regions, up from 26 before 1949. China has been playing an increasingly important role in global postal governance, said Ma.