The 97th AFA Council Meeting, 24-25 April 2009, Philippines

The ASEAN Federation of Accountants (AFA) took an important step in realising the vision of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leadership by agreeing to accelerate the development of Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) among its member bodies.

The decision was arrived at in response to the signing of ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangement Framework on Accountancy Services at Cha-am, Thailand on 26 February 2009 by the respective ASEAN Economic Ministers. The main objective of this MRA Framework is to facilitate the negotiations of MRAs on Accountancy Services between or among ASEAN Member States by providing a structure towards the conclusion of such MRAs.

The issue was discussed at length at the 97th AFA Council Meeting at the InterContinental Hotel in Manila, Philippines. The meeting agreed that the most practical way in negotiating MRAs in among ASEAN national accountancy bodies would be to commence with bilateral negotiations between the AFA member bodies, taking into account the various differences educational system, legal framework, institutional mechanism and socio-economic conditions. In this regard, the meeting agreed that each individual AFA member bodies should try to commence negotiations by identifying a prospective partner among themselves and notifying the result of this initiative to the AFA Council by August 2009.

To accelerate this process, the Indonesian institute of Accountants (IAI) and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) were requested to share with the rest of the AFA member bodies their experience in negotiating the first bilateral MRA on accountancy services among national accountancy bodies in the ASEAN region.

As another related measure, the AFA members at the meeting also agreed to commence the process of compilation and documentation of domestic regulations of the accountancy services sector in their respective ASEAN jurisdiction.

The deliberation on the issue of MRAs at the meeting was a follow up to the discussion organised by Philippines Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) International Affairs Committee held a day earlier as a precursor to the 97th AFA Council Meeting where AFA member bodies shared their experience on and views on the issue.

The 97th AFA Council meeting was hosted by the PICPA and is part of the series of the quarterly meeting of the AFA Council and was attended by AFA primary and associate members.