VOA常速英语2015--手机应用帮助肯尼亚公司领先于假货商人

Apps Helping 1 Kenyan Businesses Stay Ahead of Counterfeiters 手机应用帮助肯尼亚公司领先于假货商人

NAIROBI—

Counterfeit 2 goods in Kenya cost the government as much as $1 billion each year in lost tax revenues.  The fake goods also hurt entrepreneurs who find it hard to carve out a niche 3 in the market and retain customers.  But, information technology is being used to try to beat the problem.

Thirty-four-year-old Jemima Mwafigu intently logs her inventory 4 into her computer. She is a businesswoman who deals in perfumes and designer colognes. But in the first year of running her business, she found it hard to keep customers due to counterfeit goods.

三十四岁的Jemima Mwafigu一心一意地向电脑中输入东西。她是一个女商人，经营香水并且设计古龙水。但是在经营生意的第一年，她发现很难留住消费者，因为假货。

She says things have improved since she began using an smartphone app known as “Barcode Scanner” to authenticate 5 her products.

她表示自从她开始使用智能电话应用后情况开始好转，这个应用被叫做“条形码扫描器”，来鉴定她的产品。

Today she’s taking one of her clients through the authentication 6 process before finalizing 7 a sale. She says the app has made all the difference.

现在，她正在完成销售之前通过条形码验证来和其中一个客户进行交流。她表示这个应用让一切不同了。

“With this application I’m able to scan the bar codes of each perfume that I may be able to sell to my customers and instantly I get the manufacture date, the expiry date and I’m able to know the authenticity 8. It will actually point me to the perfume house that I’m looking for. That way, I have confidence in selling to my customers,"

“通过这个应用，我能扫描每一个香水的条形码，这样我就能够向我的客户售卖并且立刻得到生产日期，过期日期，而且我能够知道这个的真实性。这真的能将我指向我正在寻找的香水房。通过这个方式，我在向客户销售的时候有了自信。”

In 2010, Kenya created an Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA) to combat the illicit 9 trade. The ACA has successfully lobbied for stiff penalties to deter 10 would-be counterfeiters.

在2010年，肯尼亚组建了防伪机构（ACA）来和非法交易斗争。防伪机构已经成功地游说议员对制止伪造者进行严厉的惩罚。

Agnes Karingu, the ACA’s acting 11 deputy director for research and awareness 12, tells VOA the agency is trying to stay one step ahead of those making the fake goods.

Agnes Karingu，防伪机构的研究和预警执行副主任，告诉VOA这个机构正在尝试抢先那些制造假货的人们一步。

“We are also looking into IT solutions where we can be able to use SMS programs, we can be able to use bar codes and information sharing, whereby the end users of the products can actually be able to get the information authentication between counterfeit and genuine, and this information comes back to ACA and intellectual property rights holders,"

“我们也寻求IT解决办法，并且能够使用SMS项目，我们能够使用条形码和信息共享，凭借产品的最终消费者能够真的得到假货和真货之间的信息甄别，而且这个信息返回防伪机构和知识产权持有者。”

The agency is testing a pilot program known as “Allvirtous” – another app that checks a product’s authenticity by scanning its barcode. The information is then sent to a database before a positive or negative result is fed back to the app.

这个机构正在尝试被称为“Allvirtous”的试点项目-另外一个应用，能够通过扫描条形码检查产品的真伪。这个信息在将正确或者错误的结果送回应用之前被送到数据库。

The International Chamber 13 of Commerce says the value of counterfeit goods produced globally is expected to top $1.7 trillion this year.

国际商会表示全球假冒产品生产总价值在今年估计高达一万七千亿元。

For entrepreneurs such as Mwafigu, the new apps will help ensure the products she sells are the real thing.

对于像Mwafigu一样的企业家，这个新的应用将会保证她售卖的产品是真的东西。