New commerce program trains Soviet managers - Soviet-American Business Internship Training Program

Business America, June 3, 1991

New Commerce Program Trains Soviet Managers

The Commerce Department is managing a new program, called the Soviet-American Business Internship Training Program (SABIT), designed to encourage development of a market economy in the Soviet Union and to promote future U.S. business there.

SABIT was initiated by Secretary Mosbacher during the September 1990 Presidential Business Development Mission to Moscow. The program helps fulfill a pledge made by President Bush at the 1990 Malta Summit to support the Soviet Union's transition to a market economy. SABIT builds on this pledge by providing mid- and senior-level Soviet managers with firsthand experience working in the U.S. economy through management internships in American companies.

SABIT is also designed to create marketing opportunities for American companies. Because SABIT interns are selected from potential U.S. business partners in the Soviet Union, SABIT companies will have a unique opportunity to expose key managers in the Soviet Union to their products and services. They will also gain insight into business conditions in the Soviet Union through in-depth contact with Soviet managers.

When Commerce representatives went to the Soviet Union recently to interview candidates for SABIT internships, Soviet managers left their factories in their deputies' charge and came to Moscow and Leningrad from as far away as the Kamchatka Peninsula on the Bering Sea. They came on overnight trains from Minsk and Lithuania. And in their interviews, many displayed enormous enthusiasm, creativity, and energy for transforming their state-run enterprises into efficient, modern enterprises.

Sixteen U.S. companies have already agreed to host SABIT interns: Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.; Atlantic Richfield Co.; Chevron Corp.; Dresser Industries; Fortune Magazine; Glenair International; Paine Webber Group Inc.; Pepsico, Inc.; Pruet Oil Co.; Sea-Land Service, Inc.; Shelter Systems Group; Texaco Inc.; The Journal of Commerce; The Louisiana Land and Exploration Co.; Transcisco Industries, Inc.; and United Telecom, Inc. Several other firms have indicated interest in joining.

The Commerce Department matches U.S. firms with English-speaking Soviet managers in their sectors by reviewing participating firms' descriptions of the qualifications they seek in their interns. Commerce then assesses applications from Soviet candidates, interviews the most promising, and refers the most qualified candidates to the U.S. firms. The firms then select their own interns. Sponsoring firms pay for the interns' living expenses while they are with the company, but do not pay them a salary. The Soviet government pays for their roundtrip transportation to the United States.