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TALKING NOTES FOR THE CHAIRMAN OF KENTRADE AT THE

OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE KENYA NATIONAL ELECTRONIC

SINGLE WINDOW SYSTEM (KENYA TRADENET SYSTEM) BY HIS

EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT AT SAFARI PARK HOTEL ON MAY

2, 2014

Your Excellencies..

His Excellency the Deputy President

Cabinet Secretary National Treasury Mr. Henry Rotich

Cabinet Secretaries & Principal Secretaries present

Development Partners

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. Let me take this opportunity on behalf of the entire Board,

Management and Staff of KENTRADE, to welcome Your

Excellencies to this important function and more importantly to

thank you for accepting our invitation to officially launch the

Kenya National Electronic Single Window System which is also

known as the Kenya TradeNet System.

2. Your Excellencies allow me at this point to introduce the Board

of KENTRADE that has worked tirelessly to bring the Single

Window System to light since it was appointed July 2011.

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Chairman introduces all the Board Members..

3. For us at KenTrade, your presence here today is not just a show

of confidence but a demonstration of the importance that Your

Excellencies attach to the whole concept of creating a conducive

environment for the business community and private sector in

general to conduct business. The Single Window System that we

are launching today is one such initiative that seeks to ease the

process of submission, receipt and processing of trade related

cargo clearance documentation.

4. The System that you are launching today will be the sole entry point for lodgment of trade transaction documentation in Kenya and is integrated with the electronic systems of stakeholders involved in the cargo clearance process such as Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).

5. The System provides working modules for relevant institutions which do not have adequate management information systems to interface with the Kenya TradeNet and will also be integrated with existing payment systems to provide an end to end electronic solution to trade logistics in Kenya.

6. We wish to report that the deployment of the Kenya TradeNet System is complemented by a host of capacity building and communications activities to address uptake and sustainability concerns. These include the ongoing sensitisation targeting Ports and Land Border Posts users and System User training for all our stakeholders.

Your Excellencies

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7. We would like to recognize our stakeholders who are ably

represented here today for owning the Project right from the

initial stages through active participation in our meetings,

trainings and System integration and testings. These and the

tremendous goodwill and support both technical and financial

from the Government were critical in bring the Project this far.

8. The Government Agencies that have been instrumental in this

process and especially in the first phase of the project include

among others: Kenya Revenue Authority, Kenya Ports Authority,

Kenya Bureau of Standards, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate

Services, Pharmacy and Poisons Board, Horticultural Crop

Development Authority; Port Health and the Department of

Veterinary Services.

We at KENTRADE value the support and the corporation from

these Partner Government Agencies and we look forward to

closer collaboration as we fully implement the Single Window

System for the benefit of the entire region.

9. We are also grateful to other Partners who have supported this

launch today including Equity Bank, Safaricom and Oracle who

have sponsored various items associated with the launch today.

10. KENTRADE is also most grateful to our development partners

who are represented here today and in particular the

Investment Climate Facility (ICF), International Finance

Corporate (IFC) and Trademark East Africa for the invaluable

support to the Project.

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11. With these few remarks, it is now my humble duty to invite the

Cabinet Secretary at the National Treasury, Mr. Henry Rotich to

make his remarks and invite His Excellency the President to

make the official statement.

Thank You