The World Accounting Summit, which takes place at the Madinat Jumeirah, Mina A’Salam Hotel in Dubai on 26-30 May, will call for regional finance professionals to address interpretational issues. With the irresistible forces of globalisation surging through the region in a big way, adhering to and interpreting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) uniformly across the region will not only help the region in effectively competing with the effects of globalisation, but will also help in renewing public confidence in financial reporting. The World Accounting Summit, which takes place in Dubai in May, will call for a common stand by regional finance and accounting professionals on interpretational issues in applying International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Abbas Ali Mirza, Chairman of the Auditors’ Group of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) and an author of several world-renowned books on IFRS, who will deliver a keynote address at the upcoming World Accounting Summit commented, “With rampant globalisation multinational companies have realised that in order to grow and compete internationally they have to embrace the entire world as their workplace and marketplace. Therefore, if accounting is considered as the language of business, entities operating in the global arena need a common international medium of communication. The IFRS, formerly known as the International Accounting Standards (IAS), are clearly emerging as a global financial reporting benchmark and most countries in the Middle East have already started using them as their national standards.
However, if these international standards, which are primarily “principles-based” standards (unlike the US GAAP or Standards, which are “rules-based”), are not applied uniformly across the region due to interpretational differences then their effectiveness as a common medium of international financial reporting will be in question; especially if different entities within the region apply them differently based on their interpretation of the standards then meaningful comparison across the region of published financial statements of entities using IFRS will become difficult. “Debate still rages amongst accounting and auditing bodies in the Middle East on many burning and contentious accounting issues that need a common regional stand based on proper interpretation of these standards”, added Mirza.
To truly understand the importance IFRS has attained internationally one has to look at the significant strides made by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the body that sets these international standards, in the global arena of financial reporting. Currently more than 100 countries have either adopted or adapted the IFRS as their national accounting standards. “This makes it all the more important that while presenting financial statements in accordance with IFRS, knowing that many other countries around the world are also using the same standards, entities in the region using these global standards should endeavour to apply interpretations of these standards uniformly across the region in order to facilitate international comparability of financial reporting”, added Mirza.
World Accounting Summit is an international, strategic, high-level update on recent developments from the global standards setters, principal advisers and key users of international accounting standards. Insightful contributions will be made from global standard setters such as, Warren McGregor, Board Member, IASB, UK; John Petty, Vice President, CPA Australia; Mohamad Hamaid Al Marri, Assistant General Secretary, Arab Organisation of Public Accountants; Dr Hani Sarie-El Din, Chairman, Egyptian Capital Market Authority; Dr Ahmed Bin Abdulla Al-Moghames, Secretary General, Saudi Organisation for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA); Roger Adams, Executive Director – Technical, The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), UK.
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