The 91st AFA Council Meeting, 1 Sep 2007, Siem Reap, Cambodia

The 91st AFA Council Meeting was held on 1 September 2007 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The meeting was attended by representatives of its Primary Members from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Representatives of its Associate Members present were CPA Australia and ICAA.

Issues discussed at the meeting, among others were:

AFA Application for Acknowledgement as Regional Grouping of IFAC
AFA had submitted a letter to IFAC for acknowledgement as Regional Grouping of IFAC. The letter of reply from IFAC informed that IFAC is currently reviewing the criteria and obligation for Regional Organisations and Regional Groupings. As part of the application process, IFAC would like to seek to confirm and obtain evidence on the implementation of the various activities of AFA.

The Exposure Draft on IFRS for Small and Medium Sized Entities
Since the majority of businesses in ASEAN countries are SMEs and of micro sizes, the AFA Council realised the importance of the region’s perspective to be the input to the IASB. The AFA Council decided to propose the group’s comments to the IASB. However, the Council also suggested that each member country should provide its own detailed guidelines for SMEs and micro SMEs suitable for the country’s environment. To this, Prof. Kesree Narongdej has been assigned to work on the comments to the Exposure Draft on IFRS for SMEs.

The 15th AFA Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia
The organising committee of the 15th AFA Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia distributed the brochures to members of the meeting and updated the progress to the Council. The 15th AFA Conference will be held on 11-12 December 2007 at the Mulia Senayan Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Proposal of Changing the Terms of the AFA Presidency
As AFA is in the process of application for acknowledgement as Regional Grouping of IFAC, the President proposed to consider changing the terms of the AFA Presidency. This is due to the fact that not all primary members are IFAC members, hence it would be good having office bearer consisting of member bodies that are a combination of IFAC and non-IFAC members. The terms of presidency with alphabetical order was proposed to be changed into the above combination. The simulation for the President and Vice President for the future terms will be as follows:

The approval will be decided in the next AFA Council Meeting.

Venue of the 92nd AFA Council Meeting
The 92nd AFA Council Meeting will be held on 10 December 2007, before the 15th AFA Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.