Background (Role of the committee)

The Trade, Industry and Investment Committee was constituted to consider all matters relating to trade development and regulations; and investment and divestiture policies.

The committees’ mandate revolves around;

Legal Framework

The primary source of legislation of the Trade, Industry and Investment committee's activities is the constitution of Kenya 2010. The other key sources of legislation include:

• The County Governments Act 2012
• The Public Finance Management Act 2012

Approach to undertaking Committee’s Business

The committee functions through: -

• Stakeholder approach through instituting sectoral forum for County Governments officers in charge of Trade and Investments;
• Operationalize the intergovernmental mechanism on Trade and Investments to assist Counties achieve their
objective of trade

facilitation;

• Strengthen the regional blocs to assist in building a cohesive business environment in the County Government and Inter-county trade.

Status Briefs (Current agendas/issued being addressed by the committee)

• Operationalization of the Intergovernmental sectoral forum on Trade and Investments,
• Coordinate with the State Department of Trade to ensure operationalization of the National Trade Policy,
• Assist County Governments to strengthen the intuitional and legal framework of the County Economic Blocs,
• Coordinating Counties views on the development of the Kenya Investments Policy.

Opportunities that the Committee Offers

The National Trade policy offers a good opportunity for County Governments to harness the intergovernmental framework for trade and investments, involvement of Counties in the National Trade Facilitation Committee, Negotiation Committee and operationalization of the Trade e-portal. These will assist Counties to form synergy with both private sector and National Government in development of local trade, industrialization and investment.

Impact/Breakthroughs/Key Achievements

• Participated in the development of the National Trade Policy and ensured most of the Counties views have been captured in the Policy document
• Instituted research on the current status of the six regional blocs formed by County Governments Resources
• The Committee has collected information and data from County Governments on the successes made after devolution in the sector and the intervention made by them;
• The Committee holds sectoral forums with CECs in Charge of Trade to share on matters related to Trade and Investments.

Current Sector Challenges

• The County Governments have not prioritized the issue of Trade, Industrialization and Investment as such they have not been allocating the sector enough resources;
• Inter-county conflicts on collection of revenues in markets situated at the boarders;
• Lack of the National Government to involve Counties effectively on issues related to Trade;
• Multiplicity of Taxes being charged by County Governments has affected the ease of doing business in Counties.

Key lessons from the Committees Cycle (2013-2017)

• There is need to build county governments capacity on Private Public Partnerships,
• There is need to operationalize the intergovernmental mechanism in the sectors
• Regional blocs can play an integral part in inter-county blocs and resource mobilization
• Public participation in introduction of user fees is important to ensure efficiency in collection of revenue
and it is also important when making decisions related to construction of markets to ensure value for money

Priorities and support required from Committee leadership from September, 2017

• Operationalization of the, intergovernmental forum and National Trade policy in the County Governments
• Strengthening of the regional blocs
• Follow up with KenInvest on the development of the Kenya Investments Policy