El primer ministro japonés, Junichiro Koizumi.
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The Japanese parliament has agreed to the privatisation of the country's postal system -- a key step in government plans for streamlining one of the world's biggest economies.
This report from Andrew Walker:
The Japanese postal service is a vast public sector empire. It has a quarter of a million full-time employees. And apart from delivering the mail, it is by one measure the world's largest financial institution - managing over three trillion dollars worth of Japanese private savings. Privatisation of this service is symbolic of the wider reforms of the Japanese economy that the Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi wants to pursue.
Privatisation would encourage more commercial use of the resources in the savings bank and provide a source of funds for business wanting to expand. Critics say the money is currently often used by government bodies for uneconomic construction projects. Opponents of privatisation fear that it will lead to job losses and a decline in services in rural areas.
Andrew Walker, BBC, Economics Correspondent
vast
enorme o inmenso
public sector
sector público
privatisation
privatización
symbolic of the wider reforms
una indicación de reformas en otros sectores
to pursue
llevar a cabo o poner en práctica
a source of funds
fuente de recursos
government bodies
organizaciones gubernamentales
Opponents
adversarios u oponentes
a decline in services
empeoramiento de los servicios
rural areas
zonas agrícolas o rurales
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