The X-ray transient XMMU J174716.1-281048 was serendipitously discovered with XMM-Newton in 2003. It lies about 0.9 degrees off the Galactic Centre and its spectrum shows a high absorption (~9 x 10E22 cm^(-2)). Previous X-ray observations of the source field performed in 2000 and 2001 did not detect the source, indicative of a quiescent emission at least two orders of magnitude fainter. The low luminosity during the outburst (~5 x 10E34 erg/s at 8 kpc) indicates that the source is a member of the "very faint X-ray transients" class. On 2005 March 22nd the INTEGRAL satellite caught a possible type-I X-ray burst from the new INTEGRAL source IGR J17464-2811, classified as fast X-ray transient. This source was soon found to be positionally coincident, within the uncertainties, with XMMU J174716.1-281048. We analysed the INTEGRAL observations of XMMU J174716.1-281048/IGR J17464-2811 during the X-ray burst event and confirmed its type-I burst nature. Based on the type-I X-ray burst properties of IGR J17464-2811, we propose a source distance closer than the Galactic Centre (3 to 4 kpc). Thanks to these new findings, we suggest that the system is undergoing a prolonged accretion episode of many years, which has been recently strengthened by Swift/XRT observations.