The International Master of Business Administration (IMBA) program for Developing Countries is a one-year professional master's degree program organized by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education, hosted by the Institute of Emerging Market Studies at Beijing Normal University. The IMBA program is designed specifically for government officials (at the department level) and senior corporate managers from developing countries.

The MBA program aims to cultivate students' understanding and application of the fundamental principles and analytical tools of developmental economics and management studies. It connects China's reform and development theories with practical exploration, providing a proper recognition and comprehension of the current status, issues, development strategies, and policy choices of developing countries, including emerging market nations. The program enhances students' practical abilities to address socio-economic developmental challenges encountered by developing countries during their transitional phases. The goal is to train students to become researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers who possess a solid foundation in developmental economic theory, expertise in management studies, and policy analysis capabilities, while also being capable of addressing specific issues faced in the developmental process.

Teaching employs methods such as lectures, discussions, case studies, and simulations, using a credit system. Students pursuing a Master's degree in Business Administration (professional degree) in developing countries must complete the required credits, and those who achieve passing grades can proceed to write their degree thesis. After successfully defending the thesis, the Master's degree in Business Administration is awarded according to the policy.

The cultivation process is carried out through mentor groups while also emphasizing the role of collective guidance. To enhance connections and communication with the public sector, the program primarily enrolls professional managers from the international political and business areas, especially high-level professionals from international institutions and research organizations with abundant practical experience.

Each IMBA student participates in field research activities, investigating the actual situations of local governments, businesses, banks, and rural development. They extract lessons and experiences from these visits, compare and analyze them against their own country's context, and write research reports. The quality score of these research reports is included in the "Chinese Economic and Social Survey" course assessment.