THE SABIT PROGRAM ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS FOR TRAINING BUSINESS EXECUTIVES AND SCIENTISTS FROM THE NEW INDEPENDENT STATES (NIS) OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION This notice announces availability of funds for the U.S. Department of Commerce's SABIT program, the Special American Business Internship Training program for training business executives and scientists from the NIS. Under the SABIT program qualified U.S. firms will receive funds through a cooperative agreement with the Department of Commerce's International TradeAdministration (ITA) to help defray the cost of hosting interns. SABIT exposes NIS business managers and scientists to a completely new way of thinking in which demand, consumer satisfaction, and profits drive production. Senior level executives visiting the U.S. for internship programs with public or private sector companies will be exposed to an environment which will provide them with practical knowledge for transforming their countries' enterprises and economies to the free market. Federal Assistance will be awarded pursuant to a cooperative agreement between the Deparment of Commerce's International Trade Administration (ITA) and the recipient firm. ITA will reimburse companies for the round trip international travel of each intern from the intern's home city in the NIS to the U.S. internship site, upon submission to ITA of the paid travel invoice, payment receipt or other evidence of payment. The U.S. firms will be expected to provide the interns with a hands-on, non-academic, executive training program designed to maximize their exposure to management or commercially oriented scientific operations. Many U.S. firms that train NIS SABIT executives report having gained valuable contacts, business partners, and distributors. Applications are being accepted through March 31, 1997. For further information or a competitive application kit, please contact the SABIT office. WEB: click here for further information about SABIT or for a copy of the application kit, http://www.iep.doc.gov/sabit.sabit.html. E-MAIL: click here to request additional information about SABIT or for a SABITapplication, sabitapply@usita.gov.

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