The Joint Vienna Institute (JVI) is a regional training centre, primarily for public sector officials from countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It was established in 1992 by the Austrian Authorities (represented by the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank), the International Monetary Fund, and several other international organizations.

The JVI mainly offers one to two-week courses, seminars and workshops that focus on macroeconomic policy formulation and management; monetary policy and the exchange rate system; financial sector stability; debt sustainability and management; tax policy and revenue administration; expenditure management; fiscal institutions and governance; legislative frameworks; macroeconomic and financial statistics; and many more specialized topics.

The objective of the JVI's training program, which is developed in consultation with the JVI’s partners and the recipient countries, is to

• help strengthen economic policies and institutions through comprehensive training on a broad range of operational issues and problems, with a special focus on policy formulation and implementation
• give specialized training to deal with specific problems, set within the context of commonly-shared concerns and experiences
• foster the development of networks of officials across the region
• provide opportunities for nationals of transition countries to gain first-hand experience of an advanced market economy (Austria)

The principles of cooperation and partnership guide training at the JVI. The training program responds to the needs of country authorities and is provided in a coordinated fashion. Training programs may be offered either by one of the sponsoring organizations or jointly designed by several sponsoring organizations. In turn, sponsoring organizations and trainees benefit from the teaching experience and exchange of ideas, and close cooperation with each other.

The JVI is supported by six international organizations and the Austrian Authorities. Each of these entities is a party to the Agreement for the Establishment of the JVI, as amended on May 1, 2003, either as a Primary Member or as a Contributing Member. Primary Members assume equal proportionate financial responsibility for the operating costs of the JVI on an annual basis and appoint two members to the Board and two alternate members. Contributing Members participate in the JVI but do not assume financial responsibility beyond the operating cost of their proportionate use of the JVI facility. Each Contributing Member appoints one member to the Board and an alternate member.

In addition to support from its sponsoring organizations, the JVI receives financial support from some bilateral donors, namely the Czech National Bank and the Magyar Nemzeti Bank.