International bodies have long advocated for standard addresses especially in developing countries.

Saint Lucia has made another major leap in its development by implementing a postal code system.

A postal code is an identifier for a postal delivery point. The delivery point is a single mailbox or other physical address where mail is delivered, like a post office, a private letter box, or a residential or business address.

Postmaster General Josiah Charles said the main objective of the new system is to meet international standards and improve the efficiency of the postal system.

“One of the things we strongly considered was proper addressing. That has been lacking in Saint Lucia. Now what is advocated by the World Bank, by the European Union, and the International Monetary Fund, and most of all the universal postal union which is the UN body responsible for the regulation of international postal sector, is that particularly in developing countries, there has been the issue of [a lack of] proper addressing. All of these areas have been pushing for proper addressing.”

According to Charles, the postal code system will be implemented in two phases.

“In phase one we have stuck mainly to delivery points, and we now have 54 delivery points islandwide. Phase two will be a granular one, where we look into giving a code to Sans Souci, giving a code to all little areas in La Clery if need be, giving a code to every street in Castries, or every named street.

The new system was launched on Dec. 1, 2015.