 Can everybody hear me? I guess a couple of things. It'll be a little bit different from what you're used to with the other panelists today First of all, there's no paper How exciting is that? My purpose in here is because my seniors at the United States Agency for International Development Think that I have a visibility problem That people don't notice me Can you believe it? I'd like to know whether or not anyone knows where the Southern African trade hub is I Have so I have a zero-balance audience. That's fantastic because we're going to tell you a lot about ourselves today The Southern African trade hub is an organization that promotes Enhancing economic growth and food security through trade we work as a partner and Contractor with the United States Agency for International Development We're in situated in Habaroni Botswana and We're there because that's where Sadak has headquarters and that is our prime beneficiary client makes sense My job in the Southern African trade hub is to work with member states of Sadak on trade facilitation So my presentation today has no historical value to you It's talking about present and it's talking about how we make the future a better place for Sadak member states It's not how we theorize. It's how we operationalize Ideas that we're working with so that should give you a proper context of what we're going to talk about today Here's the objectives in my coming here today besides the visibility issue We want to be able to expedite and to simplify the information flow between governments and traders Both sides of this equation Traders and governments are very desirous at this take place What's exciting for me initially surprising but more exciting is that traders are giving me more of a vocal position Than I've had in previous experience in other projects worldwide and that's great because they really want to get involved From the inception phase of what we're doing in trade facilitation projects They want and see the value in reducing time costs and resources needed for clearance of cargo and They want to see regional integration of trade throughout southern Africa Which is utilizing an approach of what we call removing process seems to make it seamless to the extent possible Is that term comfortable? What are the challenges that we're facing a developing programs and services under the Southern African trade hub for trade facilitation You see them here, and it's not a lengthy list, but I could go out. These are the most important ones There are so many varying trade documentation standards That traders and their agents have one heck of a hard time Ensuring that they have the right documents to the right country at the right time Particularly when you're dealing with transit movements It can be very problematic To comply with the laws of each of those countries along the trade chain a Lack of adequate IT infrastructure and interoperable data sharing systems They're virtually nonexistent, but we are in the process now of developing them, and I'll explain a little bit more about that The need for multiple financial guarantees Regional integration as far as I'm concerned should ultimately my end state my vision is one regional bond To operate for traders anywhere in Satic That's the desired end state that we're looking for There are a number of arbitrary Administrative fees, and I think I'm being politically correct when I mentioned arbitrary administrative fees and we tend to talk about these things in the means of Trade facilitation fees, which are basically backhanders and they occur mostly about borders in My investigation and my experience that's not necessarily true. They do happen at borders but there is a tremendous amount of Arbitrary administrative fees that also take place along the roadways of the various countries in Satic Where trucks are stopped and fees are paid And that's something that we have to look at which has nothing to do with the border clearance issues It's what I call rent seeking Insufficient operating hours at customs offices not only insufficient, but irregular Where one country's hours of service differs from the adjacent country's hours of service Making it very problematic as to when you actually arrive at the border Uncoordinated national AEO programs does anybody everybody familiar with what AEO stands for? It means an authorized economic operator It's a program by which Defined low risk Traders can achieve a greater level of trade facilitation By the reduction in the number of processes and approvals that are necessary for those traders to clear their goods and It's based primarily on one function risk management That we have determined that this trader is a low risk and therefore should have a better level of service With less processes and less approvals necessary in order to achieve a clearance and Release of their goods at borders and delays and screening Here are the strategies that you can see on the slide that we're working with in order to assist Satic member states in their realizing a vision of effective trade Facilitation for their nation and for the region The RKC revised cutal convention is a starting point for us Because generally when you're speaking about border clearance, there's only one agency that handles 100% of people and cargo arriving Customs the WT agreement on trade facilitation of TFA is now our building block and developing roadmaps for our member states in the Satic region to determine what their priorities will be in in delivering on Effective border services by prioritizing where they want to deliver first and the regional tripart program from commessa Excuse me EAC and Satic, which is the free trade agreement. Here's our focus and it's corridor driven We're working with countries such as Namibia Botswana and Malawi where for our purposes we have embedded advisors working with the trade and finance ministries now On the ground, so we're focusing on primarily right now the trans Calahari and Sorry the The bearer route, but we're also now looking at a very important corridor this cut our attention Which is the north south? So we'll be focusing as we progress Later through the various iterations and through the various Interventions that we can engage with our member states on how we can make these places effective for the trans shipment of goods throughout Satic region Here's what we do. This is the how and when I'm explaining to a lot of people the way the trade hub operates We usually say w5 plus h We talk about who what when where and why? Once we get to the end of that we say now how are we gonna fix all of that and this is the how And the member states that we're working with right now. We're getting them very very close to adopting all of the international standards from revised Kyoto Convention We're developing from that a trade facilitation roadmap so that they can prioritize How they want to proceed and how do they want to proceed by adopting a risk? management approach to everything that they do Not just the customs, but every trade related ministry providing services at a port of entry We are developing for Satek and are in the final stages a comprehensive trade facilitation program And it's part one Because it's dealing right now in the first iteration with goods The next draft of it will include services We're talking about the development of a national single window or an electronic single window Hands, please national single window a familiar term to you Does everybody know what it what it is? Okay I'll try to explain it in a way that that it makes sense to most people Everybody thinks that a national single window is about customs It's not a National single window is a mechanism of processes by which all trade related Ministries can have all of their documentary process of an administrative functions Processed through a single window of automation that goes through the customs management system So it's not about customs because they're already automated. It's about getting agriculture health Standards transportation immigration all of those other agencies to go through the customs environment To satisfy the trader needs so the trader has one submission one set of documents and submitted one time All of the risk for all of the ministries are done once The response comes back once and the traders released or inspected And that's what we're working right now with Botswana Malawi in Namibia More countries to follow we hope We're also developing with coordinated border management to ensure that all trade related ministries operating at a port of entry Are horizontally managing the process for a trader So it's one inspection may involve four officers from four different agencies, but it eliminates for separate inspections And that's gonna make sense. And you know what it doesn't cost any money It's just a change in the way you do business trade information portals a very important stuff in the agreement for trade facilitation to be able to put on the internet All of the trade related information That a company anywhere in the world can look up to find out how they do business with that country next week 22nd of July we launched Namibia's trade portal It's a very exciting day for me, but as I've said to my colleagues a more exciting day for me We'll come five years later when I see that it's up running and current Okay, that we have enough SWAC equity involvement and enough commitment to maintain it public awareness strategies and plans Everything we do now involves the public For the national single window for example a number of committees are being struck national steering committees technical committees on process legislation and ICT All of them have private sector representation in the committees All of them working with us as we develop the programs to ensure that not only is government capable of delivering them But they're comfortable to the private sector to accept them Private sector collaboration. I'm always interested by this word Collaboration it means to co-labor It means to do things. We're both working at the same time not one working in one watching both working Legislative reviews and drafting. We're doing a substantial amount of this and we've just finished the second reading of the new Customs law for Budswana a major major success for us Organizational and Private sector capacity building when we're teaching governments how we do business We're always engaging the private sector to make sure they're involved, too So that they can ask the questions if you do that, what does that mean to me? How does that affect me? What will that cost me? Here's the themes going forward that the trade hub is introducing to its member state clients automating As long as there's electricity Bonding regional bonds and guarantees risk-assessing streaming Streaming is a concept which is simple in its application and costs almost no money If you have a large queue of trucks at a porter crossing, excuse me and Half of them are empty. Wouldn't you rather move them all into the same place? Or if they're all in transit move them into a specific line Or if they're most importantly perishable Would you rather not move them to a priority area for the fastest possible clearance? Cost no money. It's just streaming them in different directions simplifying and harmonizing a Very easy concept that you can reduce the number of steps it takes for a process to be completed and Most importantly, you can reduce the number of people who have to approve it before somebody gets released Delegating the authority to the lowest possible level and Utilizing international standards Time-shifting is one that we're introducing very very quickly into our member state countries Time-shifting basically means if I can complete a large number of processes that would normally be required at a border crossing in advance of the goods arriving and paying the duties in taxes in advance of the goods arriving and Determining the integrity and compliance verification of most of my clients through a post clearance audit Then I have done something in which Most of your border obligations are met before the goods arrive or after the goods are gone Which means in effect that at the border You have two decisions to make Release the goods or inspect them Everything else is done, and I hope that makes sense Time-shifting is a very important process advancement that we're using here with SADAC Measuring and monitoring to ensure that we have proper baselines for the work that we're doing in designing new processes And that we've established proper key performance indicators regionalizing in connectivity One of the things that we're experiencing now, and I'm not going to say yet that it's a lesson learned connectivity of different customs management systems throughout the SADAC region is Dependent on those systems being able to Talk to each other We were recently engaged with Botswana in Namibia in a customs connectivity project along their land border crossing At the time that we designed the project Botswana and Namibia were both utilizing the Asakuta plus plus system As we progressed through the project Namibia went on to Asakuta world It then required an adapter for those two systems to talk to each other believe it or not and We had to suspend the operation of the project Until Botswana makes a decision on what its new customs management system will be and Hopefully we'll be able to have it where those two countries can talk to each other in Mozambique for example they use MC net and South Africa I believe it's Tennis If you're familiar there, they each of them has a different communication system for customs management And it's up to us to help guide them to ensure that those systems are All capable of talking to each other and here's why Wouldn't it be lovely in the future if when you export goods from one country? The information that you used to export the goods is then transmitted into the incoming country as the import information I see the smiles like you probably like that So that's what we're doing, and we're also looking at co-locating For example a one-stop border post where both countries are operating pretty much in the same building What are the benefits? Please wrap up I'm giving you a list of benefits the government should be able to realize as a result of all of those programs One center for importers and exporters. These are the main beneficiaries and in future with these services These are the ones that will be paying for it The economy Speak to herself, and I think many of the panelists today have spoken on these very points and with that I say thank you