Foreign Investors' Council

AmCham Board members participate in a variety of committees under the Foreign Investors' Council (FIC) where they speak on behalf of member interests and work on draft legislations in the spheres of taxation, legal reform, work permits, customs, and a host of policy and operational issues. The AmCham Executive Director sits on the Operations Committee, which discusses and proposes modifications to labor, customs, and vocational education legislation.

 

U.S. Corporate Tax

With regard to U.S. corporate taxes, the Chamber is continuing its efforts to secure an upward adjustment of the housing allowance exclusion for U.S. expatriate staff assigned to work in Kaakhstan for U.S. companies. Meetings have been conducted twice in 2007 at the Treasury Department in Washington with senior legal counsel for the IRS international taxation unit.

 

On-going representation has been engaged through Ernst & Young in Washington to push this initiative forward with support from the International Tax and Investment Center, the U.S.-Kazakhstan Business Association, the U.S. Embassy, and the U.S. State Department. It is anticipated that this initiative will reach fruition towards the end of 2008.

 

Eurasia Business Platform

In November 2006 AmCham joined the Eurasia Business Platform (EBP), a new U.S. Chamber of Commerce initiative to raise the profile of Central Asia and the Caucasus in Washington and to encourage close cooperation between regional AmChams. EBP has been exceptionally active in 2007 with four meetings, two in Washington, which serve to attract senior policy-makers from the U.S. State and Commerce Departments, as well as senior experts from the Washington-based development banks and policy institutes, and major U.S. corporations.

 

In addition, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues to spearhead EBP meetings in Washington on a monthly basis when the AmChams are not present in Washington.

 

The mid-July TIFA Washington Roundtable brought together all the Central Asian trade and industry ministers at the U.S. Chamber headquarters for a day-long discussion of the TIFA (Central Asian Trade and Industry Framework Agreement) negotiations that had just been concluded. The early December EBP Washington Conference investigated border management and transportation issues, which are seen as impeding Eurasian economic integration.

 

A number of articles about EBP activities in 2007 have appeared in Investors' Voice, reporting in full to members on the initiative's broad range of representational work on their behalf.

 

Washington D.C. ‘Door-Knock'

AmCham in Kazakhstan conducted its first Washington ‘Door-Knock' round of meetings, during which meetings were held with senior interlocutors from the National Security Council, the State Department, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the International Trade Administration, and the U.S. Congress. Two results of this are trade missions in early 2008, one led by a U.S. Congressman from Ohio and the other led by the Turkish AmCham from Istanbul. Other results may be expected throughout the year as EBP meetings continue in Washington and in Eurasia.

 

The ‘Door-Knocks' are a valuable means for AmCham in Kazakhstan to get its message out to Washington policy-makers and to the U.S. investment community through Congressional representatives who are able to take the message back home to their own business constituents. It is intended to continue this drive in Washington to make Eurasia better known and to encourage trade and investment in this region.

 

Public-Private Economic Partnership Initiative

The Partnership is a bilateral initiative between the governments of Kazakhstan and the United States and is headed by AmCham for its members and the business community as a whole on the Kazakhstan side. The Chamber has two official PPEPI partner associations in Kazakhstan, the Forum of Entrepreneurs led by Raimbek Batalov, Chairman of Raimbek Group, one of Kazakhstan’s most successful businessmen, and the Atameken National Economic Union headed by Azat Peruashev, who has held leading positions in public and academic life for several decades.