BEIJING — From 2020 to 2025, China's outbound small packets will see their postal remuneration rates rise by 164 percent compared with 2019, according to the country's postal service regulator.

The prediction was based on the reform plan of postal remuneration rates passed at the third extraordinary congress of Universal Postal Union (UPU).

Remuneration rates are the tariffs paid by the sending country to the receiving country for the delivery of its post, primarily bulky letters and small packets under 2 kg, according to the UPU.

With the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in recent years, the international small packet business has seen rapid growth and significantly rising processing costs, explained the State Post Bureau (SPB).

"In the long run, it will be an inevitable trend for the remuneration rates of small international packets to rise sharply, which will increase the logistics cost of China's cross-border e-commerce," said Gao Hongtao, deputy director of SPB's general office.

More efforts should be made to promote structural adjustment updates of products in China's e-commerce platforms and upstream industries, Gao said.

Delivery-related industrial chains, both upstream and downstream, will work to achieve high-quality development, to adapt to the marketization process of small international packets, said Gao.