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{
    "id": 749644,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/749644/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 124,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the undisputed sitting and incoming Woman Representative of Nairobi County. This Bill is of interest to us, the leadership of Nairobi, not just for what it provides for this City but for what it entails for the country and for the East African region and Africa as a whole. It has been said by those who have contributed that, indeed, Kenya is a strategically located and positioned country. There is nothing better for man to actively and deliberately leverage on God-given head starts and opportunities as we have in Kenya. This is one of the countries in Africa where within less than five or so hours you can be in any other part of the continent. We are blessed with wonderful weather. We are within the tropics. Anybody around the world would love to spend time in Nairobi. Even beyond business, Nairobi is a Capital City in the world where you can see animals in their natural habitat. We have been able to develop good networks in terms of communication. I was recently chatting with some business associates from South Africa and they were saying that when you are sitting in the heart of Upper Hill you might as well be in New York, because we have fast connectivity and the infrastructure is becoming something that we can talk about. I would like to support this legislation to set up the Nairobi International Financial Centre. Of course, we are aware that there was a Legal Notice in 2014 that started the process. The benefits of having a clear financial centre established by statute, as we are doing now, are many. There are countries that have led in this path. One of the closest examples, because of obvious advantages that Nairobi has, is Singapore. The Singapore Financial Centre has been able to serve the entire Asia-Pacific region, and not just Singapore. If you talk about banking, insurance banking and treasury services, you will find that they have been able to serve the entire Asia-Pacific region. It is through financial services that Singapore has become an international economic power. We expect to see further development of our capital markets through the international financial centre. That requires a deep and liquid resource pool for us to be able to have that in Nairobi and in the region. We are talking about debt and equity services, foreign exchange, real estate investment trust and business trust frameworks. We can draw from a large pool of domestic as well as international pools of capital. That requires an improvement and The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}