ITIC Signs MoU with Chinese Partners

During the first conference of the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Forum (BRITACOF), ITIC President Daniel Witt signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC) and the China International Tax Research Institute (CITRI). The MoU formally establishes cooperation between the three organizations to assist BRI jurisdictions as they undertake reforms to improve trade and investment in the region.

As initial steps under the MoU, the three partners organized several industry-specific workshops (digital economy and e-commerce; engineering, construction and services; and oil, gas, and mining) earlier this week in Beijing to identify the most important tax issues facing companies in the BRI countries. A report on the workshops will soon be presented to the PRC State Tax Administration (STA).

L to R: Wang Jun (STA Commissioner); Liao Tizhong (Director General of the STA International Department) and Dan Witt during the MoU signing ceremony.

ITIC Named Official Observer to BRITACOM

Earlier this week at the first Conference of the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Forum (BRITACOF), ITIC President Daniel Witt signed a memorandum of understanding on the establishment of the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Mechanism (BRITACOM). 

Through this MoU, ITIC is officially recognized as an Observer to BRITACOM, a joint effort of the Belt and Road Initiative Cooperation Parties (BRCP) to "contribute to building a growth-friendly tax environment through cooperation in tax service, tax dispute resolution, tax capacity building and sharing of experiences and best practices in tax administration."

Financing Sustainable Development and Achieving the 2030 Agenda

On the eve of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings, ITIC organized a dinner for senior government officials and ITIC sponsors to discuss the need to unlock private investment to drive inclusive growth and prosperity to achieve the 2030 Agenda. The dinner featured remarks by H.E. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Subsequent to the ITIC dinner, at a high-level meeting in New York City, Ambassador Salim Baddoura (current President of UNCTAD's governing body) spoke about the need for the "international community to recommit to multilateralism" and UNCTAD's related work on financing sustainable development. [Continue Reading]

ITIC Panel in IMF/World Bank Civil Society Policy Forum

As part of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings this week in Washington, ITIC organized a Civil Society Policy Forum session on "Mobilizing Private-Sector Investment to Achieve the SDGs." Featuring remarks from Seth Terkper (former Minister of Finance, Ghana), Alexandra Readhead (IGF Mining), and Stephen Comstock (API), the session discussed the linkage between multinational enterprises, foreign direct investment and revenue mobilization to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

ITIC Donates Kazakhstan Materials to Stanford Archives

On 7 March, acting on behalf of ITIC President Daniel Witt, ITIC co-founder and Economic Adviser Charles McLure turned over to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University a collection of documents created during the 1993-1995 process of tax reform in Kazakhstan. While most of these documents were produced by the staffs of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Finance and State Tax Inspectorate and their foreign advisers, some were produced by representatives of ITIC’s sponsor companies.

The documents cover the period beginning in March 1993, when Finance Minister E.Z. Derbisov invited the Tax Foundation to lead a mission to Almaty to discuss tax aspects of improving his country’s investment climate, and ending in April 1995, when President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law the first modern tax system in the former Soviet Union. 

During that period, Finance Minister Derbisov and Marat Ospanov, head of the Tax Inspectorate, signed a “principles protocol” that led to McLure’s preparation of white papers to help the Ministry staff understand the principles and objectives of sound tax policy. Vice President Erik Asanbaev subsequently asked Witt and McLure to lead the development of a modern tax code in cooperation with Ministry staff; Members of Parliament; and representatives from the IMF, EU, OECD, US Treasury, and USAID. A conference was held in London, at which ITIC was named secretariat for the corps of foreign advisers.

ITIC co-founder and Economic Adviser Charles McLure delivers materials on Tax Reform in Kazakhstan to Anatol Shmelev, the Robert Conquest Curator for Russia and Eurasia at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution Archives.