The International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC) serves as a clearinghouse for information on best practices in taxation and investment policy, and as a training center to transfer such know how to improve the investment climate of transition and developing countries, thereby spurring formation and development of business and economic prosperity.

Organized in 1993, ITIC is an independent nonprofit research and education foundation with offices in Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.

If ITIC can be said to have an agenda, it is to spread 'best international practice.' ITIC's staff relies on sponsors to contribute substantively to every educational program, drawing on their practical international experience. That leaves the staff to focus on building a rapport with hundreds of government officials who need the expertise that ITIC sponsors can deliver.

This division of labor has worked well. ITIC has developed trusted advisory relationships with key, senior-level policymakers in Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and other CIS nations. These relationships have now spread to other countries such as Libya, Iraq, The Peoples Republic of China, India, Mexico and others.

ITIC’s unique strength is that it brings together professionals in the public and private sector together for discussion of common problems, and to share best practice from other jurisdictions.

While other groups do similar policy work, in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere, ITIC focuses on solving concrete, practical problems related to tax and investment laws and regulations. Through its monthly forums, "hands-on" working sessions, and special relationships with key country officials, ITIC brings together Western and regional business experts with government policy makers and members of Parliament to address a range of specific issues and problems. ITIC increasingly also fulfils an important role in facilitating the exchange of best practices and comparative experience amongst program nations, their documentation and dissemination.

The tangible results of ITIC's work are evident in many of the changes that CIS nations and other countries have made to their tax codes. And the consistent attendance at ITIC programs by the most senior tax officials of many countries testifies to the unique position ITIC occupies.

While other groups do policy work in these countries, ITIC does more. Its strategy of serving as a neutral forum for discussion and resolution of legislative, regulatory, and administrative problems in tax and investment policy has been extraordinarily effective.

These relationships, forged over many years in personal meetings and at ITIC's educational pro-grams, have provided channels for private sector expertise to reach the government before, during, and after the official policymaking process. This combination, which is truly unique to ITIC, is the institution's principal asset - it provides ITIC and its sponsors a seat at the policymaking table.
In some areas of each country's tax code, ITIC focuses exclusively on policy reform, because tax and investment policies are far from satisfactory and must change before steady economic growth can occur. In other areas, sound tax policies have been enacted, often with ITIC's help. In those cases, ITIC focuses on regulations and administration so that the promise of sound tax policy is fulfilled.
With offices in Almaty, Astana, Baku, Kiev, London, Manila, Moscow, and Washington, ITIC maintains daily communication with policymakers and briefs its sponsors constantly. Through its regular Tax Roundtables, hands-on working sessions, and trusted relationships with elected and appointed officials from its program countries, ITIC brings together Western business experts with government policy makers and Members of Parliaments to address a range of specific issues and problems.

The primary mission is transferring Western know-how, but ITIC also reports back to its supporters with advance information on tax and investment laws, decrees, and regulations so that ITIC investors are involved in the policy process on the "front end."

As our circle of 'graduates' grows, so does our ability to effect pro-investment changes, not only in our original host nations of Russia and Kazakhstan but in the other countries we are now assisting. The objective is to strengthen their economies by providing legislators, ministers, regulators and administrators a better understanding of business practices in a market economy.