Business and Economic Centre is part of the International Association of Business and Parliament (IABP), which was established in Georgia in 2004 with support of the EU Commission. In 2007, under the patronage of the Chairperson of the Parliament and through endorsements of all political factions, funded by BP, the Business Economic Centre was set up in the Parliament of Georgia as an independent platform for legislative dialogue. BEC is an independent, not-for-profit and non-partisan institution which aims at strengthening the legislative dialogue on the issues of economy through enhanced policy consultation between business community, civil society and the Parliament of Georgia. BEC does not have policy views. Its sole responsibility is to facilitate the dialogue, build mutual understanding between legislators, policy makers and those affected by the policy in order to support informed judgments by decision makers.

Occupying a modern suite of offices in the centre of the parliamentary complex, BEC acts as an educational resource for the Members of Parliament and non-state stakeholders supporting them in learning about one another. Through its regular programs, policy forums and impartial economic research services, adopted from the UK House of Commons Library, BEC acts as a capacity building resource for the Parliament of Georgia supporting the institutional strengthening of the legislature.

Currently, BEC is funded by BP and co-venturers, the International Alert, the British Embassy Tbilisi and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Code of Principles

• The programmes are independent and non-partisan;
• The programmes are mutually educational and informative;
• The participants undertake to honour the time commitment required by the study programme;
• The programmes ensure that participants will not promote partisan views while on attachments;
• The programmes ensure that enterprises undertake not to use their relationship for lobbying;
• The programmes ensure that enterprises undertake to be as open and frank as possible;
• while participants undertake to keep in confidence information of a sensitive nature;
• It is the responsibility of each organization to monitor its programmes and develop their quality;
• The participants must receive no fee or be liable for any expenses related to the programmes.

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