Due to the risk of the COVID-19 virus spread, IOTA transformed the 27th Forum of Principal Contact Persons into the first ever Digital PCP Forum. We would like to thank to all the PCPs who attended our webinar and raised so many important questions and comments.
The Digital PCP Forum was focused on the following five chapters in the development of IOTA:
1. Sustainability and smart growth. These are the two main guiding principles for the next development phase of IOTA. These guiding principles are forward looking and will contribute to a more stable and successful IOTA in the years to come. According to the decision of Executive Council meeting in September 2019, 4 working groups were established to brainstorm and propose solutions for revising and reframing the Strategy of IOTA, Charter, Technical Activities and the Financial Framework. In the Digital PCP Forum the outputs of these working groups were presented by our management.
2. The results of the Strategy Review Working Group were presented by Roman Bichevoy, Manager of Institutional Development, and the proposed text of IOTA Strategy contains 4 objectives for the future of IOTA.
- Effective delivery of high quality, innovative services of practical solutions for Members
- Operational excellence by increasing the capacity, optimising the processes, digitalizing the services and introducing effective communication
- Positioning IOTA as a reliable and attractive partner for international tax organizations and as a contributor implementing global tax initiatives
- Smart growth could be achieved with cooperating the business sector, collaborating with academia and expanding to associated members and observers
3. Eugenijus Soldatkovas, Manager of Work Programme, provided an overview of the work carried out so far by the IOTA Charter Review Working Group which had focused on 5 priority areas for amending this very important document.
- Reframing the structure of the Charter
- Introducing 3 categories of amendments in the Charter: technical, procedural and substantive
- Amending the key articles such as Article 6 “Full Members”, Article 7 “Associate Members” (new article), Article 10 “The General Assembly” and Article 12 “The Executive Council”
- Adding new articles about Observers, Partners and Principal Contact Persons
- Drafting provisions that regulate the election process of the IOTA Presidency on biannual basis
4. Eugenijus also gave an update on the review of the IOTA Technical Activities highlighting the following proposals developed by the Subgroup.
- Flexibility of Annual Work Programme - mechanism of proposing and approving hot topic or ad-hoc events
- New types and innovative formats of IOTA activities – launch of a survey to collect concrete ideas for innovations in the delivery of IOTA events
- IOTA project-based activities - principles of resourcing the joint projects with external partners, and promotion and publicity of project results to IOTA members and to the public
- Making the IOTA technical activities more appealing for top management – changing the concept of technical sessions of the IOTA General Assembly
- The Online Technical Enquiry (TE) service – improvement in functionality and in the evaluation process
5. Lajos Gelencsér, the Manager of Finance and Business Administration, presented the plan of the Financial Framework Working Group about how to overcome the anomaly of the unchanged revenue amount and the dramatically increasing expenses. It contains 5 proposals which would be introduced gradually by 2023.
- Utilizing the operational reserve before a new contribution system is introduced in 2023
- Increasing the membership contribution by 10% for the year 2022
- Implementing new revenue channels
- Decreasing the cost of the catering at the events
- Regional and updated threshold values are proposed to be implemented in case of accommodation and catering
Considering a positive feedback from many PCPs we consider this webinar to be a successful event. We are planning to use this format in the future more, especially in this challenging time. We are also organizing a video/webinar/guide for NEW PCPs where we educate them about all the important information about who we are, what we do, why are we different form other organization, what is the role of PCP and how they can benefit from IOTA. All the information about this event will be communicated shortly.
Thank you very much for joining our event and see you next time!