Secretary of State
Office of the Secretary of State's Website is Now Multilingual

          With Kentucky’s economy diversifying through foreign based companies who now call the Commonwealth home, Secretary of State Trey Grayson announced today that the Office of the Secretary of State’s website will offer translations into six new languages.  The new service makes the Office of the Secretary of State’s website one of the first multilingual websites in Kentucky state government.

            “In order for Kentucky to be at the cutting edge of economic development, we must provide as much access to information as possible for potential companies,” stated Secretary Grayson.  “As one of the portals for business incubation in the Commonwealth, it seemed only necessary that we provide this resource to help grow Kentucky’s economy.”

            The site is translated through an automated and computerized process and occurs dynamically, allowing the site to be translated immediately after it is update in English.  The site will now be accessible in Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Italian, and traditional Chinese.  Forms for the office will not be translated as Kentucky Revised Statutes require “the document shall be in the English language” (KRS 271, KRS 273, KRS 275).  All visitors to the site whose computers are programmed with the appropriate characters will have access to the translations.

            Nearly two percent of the 1.8 million yearly visitors to the Office of the Secretary of State’s website come from foreign countries.  The languages chosen primarily reflect the demand for the languages as determined by constituents’ requests and the primary languages of the international visitors that most frequently visited the site.

            “We want to create an environment where business can thrive in this state.  By providing this service, we are opening the door to even greater opportunities for business in the Commonwealth,” stated Grayson.

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