As part of the project for the implementation of the port community-based system, a delegation grouping officers of Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Kenya Port Authority (KPA), was on a visit to Dakar from the 8th to the 13th of September 2008.

This second visit was in line with Kenyan authorities’ desire to build on Senegal’s Single Window experience. In this respect, the delegation held in-depth work sessions with Gainde 2000 experts and met with some of the key stakeholders of the system. These visits and meetings helped highlight the electronic exchanges of data and documents among actors, which is illustrative of a real capacity for the ORBUS System to serve as the basis of the forthcoming community-base system.

Designed in 1996 and made operational in 2004, the ORBUS system boasts a solid operation experience. Many upgrades have been introduced since then, with the view to providing more services to the business community. An important improvement process was launched in April 2008 with the holding of a seminar gathering all the stakeholders around the theme: “The ORBUS System, Assessment and Prospects”. This seminar provided the occasion to identify the points of improvement and set objectives in the short and long term:

• Connection of all stakeholders involved in trade operations
• Automation of new procedures
• Outsourcing of procedures thanks to the new
  legal environmention Senegal
• Effective operation of electronic payment
• Interoperability

The seminar was staged with the support of the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF).

GAINDE 2000 took part on 23- 25 April 2008 in the WCO conference-exhibition on Information Technologies as an exhibitor. This 7th edition of the WCO conference was held on the theme "Integrated Border Management – Is IT essential?" The conference-exhibition was staged in collaboration with Korean customs.

The Conference
South Korean Minister of Strategy and Finance opened the Conference in the presence of the Director General of Korean customs, the Chairman of WCO Board, the Representative of WCO Secretary General, the Chairman of the International Professional Association of Korea, the Chairman of the Korean Association of Software Industries, customs and private sector experts.

The project for the electronic payment of customs dues and taxes has reached its experimental phase with the signing of conventions among different stakeholders. Proceedings of the technical committee had culminated in a contractual framework that eventually led to the drafting of the conventions. The signing ceremony, gathering various stakeholders - the Public Accounting and Treasury Department, banks and GAINDE 2000 – took place on 18 April 2008 at the Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture of Dakar (CCIAD), with the Head of the Senegalese customs administration attending. The signing of the conventions marks the beginning of the pilot phase of the electronic payment platform dubbed CORUS.

As part of the project to implement a Single Window for trade facilitation among Central Asian countries - Kirghizstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan – a delegation of experts and officials led by the German Cooperation Agency (GTZ) was on a visit to Senegal on 25-29 February 2008.

This visit was in line with the different parties’ desire to promote commercial relations among their countries through the establishment of a high-performance IT system likely to facilitate the exchange of information in real-time, and provide accurate statistics and transaction histories.

On the occasion, the delegation inquired into Senegal’s experience in terms of electronic trade facilitation through its Single Window dubbed ORBUS and set up to facilitate the collection of pre-clearance documents.

At the end of the visit, the delegation accented the practical aspect of ORBUS, which, they said, could adapt to the systems currently used in their respective countries.

GAINDE 2000 staged on 3-4 September 2007, jointly with France E-commerce, a symposium on the outsourcing of foreign trade procedures between Senegal and France, with the view to:

• laying the foundations of paperless trade between Senegal and the other regions of the world using international standards;
• developing the outsourcing of formalities in commercial transactions between France and Senegal;
• putting in place conditions to start the France-Senegal outsourcing pilot phase centred on the Certificate of Origin.

Initiated by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Canadian ePolicy Resource Centre (CePRC), the TIGA Awards seek to encourage the use of Information Technologies in the delivery of public services representing a major challenge for African governments, but also to reward these government’s efforts in the effective use of ICT for better services to citizens, civil society organisations and the private sector in a transparent, efficient and effective way.

The TIGA Award ceremony was staged on 1st May 2007, on the sidelines of the 5th meeting of the Committee on Development Information (CODI V) held in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.

GAINDE 2000 has won the award in the category “Public/Private Partnership (PPP) in economic and financial eServices delivery”.