On March 16 evening, the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Mechanism (BRITACOM) Round-table Conference was held in Beijing. The conference focused on the operation and promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Capacity Enhancement Group (BRITACEG) Curriculum System Version 1.0, the development of the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Journal (BRITJ), and the preparation of the Forth Conference of the Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Forum (BRITACOF). Representatives from BRITACOM Council Member Tax Administrations, observers, advisory board, and BRITJ Editorial Advisory Board presented the conference. All the participants expressed their supports and insightful views and reached common agreements.  WANG Daoshu, Executive Secretary of the BRITACOM Secretariat and Chief Economist of the State Taxation Administration of China, held the conference.

In February 2023, the BRITACEG Curriculum System Version 1.0 was officially released by BRITACEG on the BRITACOM website and the BRI Tax Academy website, which received widespread attention. The Curriculum System Version 1.0 is oriented towards improving the tax collection and administration capacity of BRI countries, closely following the functions and positioning of taxation departments and the duties of tax officials, said Mr. Long Kong Leong, Chairman of BRITACEG and Director of the Finance Bureau of Macao, China, when he presented a speech on the conference. A total of 65 courses are offered under the four themes of Tax System, Tax Administration and Digitalisation, Tax Business Environment and Taxpayer Service, and Tax Cooperation.

Mr. Leong also introduced that after three years of steady development, BRITACEG has achieved remarkable successes in developing its knowledge products, constructing the BRI Tax Academy and formulating of the faculty. Up to now, BRITACEG has held more than 50 online and offline training activities, provided training to more than 3,000 tax officials from more than 100 countries and regions, and established five BRI Tax Academies in Yangzhou, Beijing, Astana, Macao, and Riyadh. A multilingual network of training institutions covering English, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic has been established, with 26 internationally renowned tax experts from 13 countries and regions containing the first BRITACEG faculty.

BRI Tax Academies in Yangzhou, Astana and Riyadh shared their experiences and said that the curriculum provides a practical template for the training of the academy. They also expressed their willingness to further enhance cooperation and exchange. They will continuously develop training products, exchange teachers, courses, and other training resources, and make the training of BRITACEG more extensive, larger in scale and richer in content. The Academies will work together to promote the joint improvement of BRI countries’ tax administration capacity and contribute to the construction of a growth-friendly tax environment.

The BRITACEG Curriculum System Version 1.0 was highly praised by Mr. Christian Kaeser, Chairman of the ICC Tax Committee, Mr. Rup Kadkar, a tax expert from Nepal, and Professor Deng Liping from Xiamen University. Mr. Christian Kaeser said that with the release of The BRITACEG Curriculum System Version 1.0 and successive courses, the curriculum will bring scientific, professional and efficient knowledge training to the tax officials from more BRI countries, continuously enhance the level of tax administration capacity, and drive BRITACEG advancing in a brand-new stage.

BRITJ (English version), the representative knowledge product of BRITACOM has been published for six issues, with more than 100 articles and 500,000 words in total. The Journal, which focuses on hot topics in the field of international taxation, is dedicated to deepening the concept, ideas and achievements of the BRI and responding to the taxation concerns of BRI countries. ZHANG Zhiyong, Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board and Chairman of China International Taxation Research Institute, said that the journal is becoming a link between the tax authorities of the BRI to enhance understanding, build consensus and strengthen cooperation. In the following step, the Journal will continue to play the role of intellectual support, improve the quality of the publication, expand the dissemination channels and enhance the brand influence. A number of editorial board members domestic and overseas made valuable suggestions on how to run the Journal.

It is reported that the Fourth Conference of the BRITACOF on 11-13 September 2023 in Tbilisi, Georgia. The conference has been designed to provide an innovative and comprehensive perspective of improving tax business environment.