International Testing Agency director general Benjamin Cohen in an exclusive interview with Xinhua while attending the first International Anti-Doping Symosium in Beijing on July 17, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Xu)

BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The newly-founded International Testing Agency (ITA) wants to help athletes regain confidence in the current doping control system by offering services at a high standard, ITA director-general Benjamin Cohen has said here.

The ITA was founded last year by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). As an independent organization, it will manage the doping control program for future Olympic Games and also offer comprehensive anti-doping services to international sport federations and all other anti-doping organizations.

"The idea was to create an international organization that could manage anti-doping in an independent manner with more transparency, more expertise, and more independence," said Cohen, former director of WADA's European Office & International Federation Relations.

"There's been some recent scandals in the field of anti-doping. The aim is to enhance transparency and independence in the management of anti-doping efforts. And it is also to centralize the the expertise to unite the resources of the sports movement," said Cohen after the International Anti-Doping Symposium held here on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Cohen said the key to improving the current doping control system, besides transparency and independence, is to conduct all tests using standard practices.

"To regain trust in the system, I think athletes want to make sure that wherever you come from in the world, irrespective of your sports that you are treated equally," he said.

"As you know, in China, you have accredited doping control officers, but this is not the case in every country in the world," he said.

"I think ITA now has a duty to offer athletes all around the world [the same] high standards," Cohen said.

Currently the ITA does not have its own doping control officers, but instead relies on national anti-doping agencies to conduct its tests. Cohen said the agency is working on an international standard for doping control officers.

"We want to organize the system and to have an international accreditation system for all doping control officers to make sure that the standards are high. For example, we will accredit the CHINADA doping control officer who already went through a robust program. But we want to offer this [same level of] quality all over the world for every athlete, irrespective of the sport or the country," he added.

Currently the ITA has signed agreements with 40 international federations to offer anti-doping services.