FUNDS AVAILABLE TO TRAIN POTENTIAL BUSINESS PARTNERS FROM THE NIS The Special American Business Internship Training (SABIT) Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce recently announced the availability of $4.4 million in funding for U.S. companies interested in training potential business and scientific partners from the New Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union. SABIT is a unique private sector - U.S. Government partnership that was created in order to support the NIS's transition to market economies while boosting U.S. commercial opportunities in the region. SABIT provides funds to U.S. companies to help defray the costs of providing three to six months of hands-on training to managers and scientists from the NIS. To date, SABIT has awarded grants to well over 200 U.S. organizations and has trained 450 NIS interns. SABIT is a win-win opportunity for participating U.S. firms and their NIS counterparts. Since SABIT matches U.S. firms with NIS managers and scientists who are in the same or similar sectors, the U.S. companies and their interns frequently establish business ties at the conclusion of the internships. To that end, more than sixty percent of the U.S. organizations that have participated in the SABIT program report ongoing business relationships or scientific collaboration with their interns, such as joint ventures, contracts, and distributorships. Furthermore, $10 million dollars in U.S. export revenues have resulted from the U.S.-NIS business relationships facilitated through SABIT. For example: A New Jersey housing company which has trained five Russian managers through SABIT has, as a direct result of the NIS contacts made through the program, completed business contracts totaling $3.5 million. Also, a SABIT intern from Belarus has, since his return home, facilitated the sale of $2 million worth of his Minnesota host company's agricultural equipment to companies in the NIS. Michael Carroll of North American Agricultural, a SABIT company from Illinois, summed up his company's experience with SABIT when he exalted, ``Dollar for dollar SABIT is probably the best expenditure of U.S. government funds of any of our foreign aid programs.'' SABIT interns return to their countries armed with new technologies and innovative management skills necessary to support the NIS' transition to free market economies. Uniformly, SABIT interns say that participating in the SABIT program has not only provided a valuable opportunity to witness first hand how a market economy operates, but has also changed their attitudes. Tariel Gogoberidze, a SABIT intern from Tbilisi, Georgia commented, ``Such programs are necessary to my country to help move from an old socialistic system to a free market. The SABIT program helps participants to learn about civilized markets, make business connections, and (attract) possible foreign investment.'' U.S. firms interested in participating in the SABIT program should contact the U.S. Department of Commerce for an application kit. SABIT is accepting applications from U.S. companies for the $1.4 million until April 30, 1996, or until funding is depleted. Company applications are reviewed on a competitive basis. All profit and non-profit organizations are encouraged to apply to the program, however SABIT gives priority consideration to U.S. companies in the following sectors: agribusiness, defense conversion, energy, environment, financial services, health care, housing, product standards and quality control, telecommunications, and transportation. Selected companies have the option to choose an intern from SABIT's pool of pre-screened candidates, or to recommend specific candidates to SABIT. All intern candidates must submit an intern application and be interviewed by SABIT to determine their suitability as an intern. SABIT reimburses participating firms the cost of each intern's round trip airfare and a daily $30 stipend, to be given directly to the intern to cover his/her meals and incidental expenses. Host companies provide the intern's hands-on training, housing, medical insurance and visa sponsorship. SABIT also manages two specialized training programs for NIS executives. First, in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), SABIT launched the Standards program to improve product standards and quality control in the NIS. This program, which focuses on the automotive, medical equipment, telecommunications, construction/infrastructure, and aerospace sectors, will provide 100 NIS standards experts with two weeks of training at NIST and six weeks at U.S. companies in the same industry. Secondly, SABIT and the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) jointly developed a comprehensive training program to provide up to 120 defense enterprise experts from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine with two weeks of business management training, followed by six weeks of hands-on training in product diversificaton with various U.S. firms. For both specialized programs, SABIT covers all costs except for interpreters and local transportation. For more information regarding any of the SABIT programs, contact the SABIT office by phone on (202)482-0073, by fax on (202)482-2443 or by email to SABIT@usita.gov.

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