ASEAN Accountants Converge in Brunei for the 16th AFA Conference and the 99th AFA Council Meeting
The ASEAN Accounting fraternity is converging in
Brunei Darussalam from 6th to 9th of December 2009 to participate in the 16th
AFA Conference at the Rizqun International Hotel in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.
The Conference was hosted by the Brunei Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (BICPA) who was recently inducted as an associate member of
International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).
The AFA Conference is a biennial event organized by AFA with each of the 10 AFA
primary member bodies taking turns in rotation to host the event. The 16th
edition of Conference, themed ‘Accountants: Facing Challenges and Shaping the
Economy’ was a grand event featuring speakers from all around the region and was
officiated by the Minister of Finance II of Brunei Darussalam, the Honorable
Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato’ Seri Awg Hj Abdul Rahman Bin Hj Ibrahim.
The Minister of Finance II Brunei Darussalam officiating the 16th AFA Conference
The Conference was designed to bring together leaders, accountants,
professionals, executives and academics in finance in ASEAN as well as to allow
them to share best practices in finance and accounting management, and gain
fresh insights and cutting-edge information on global trends, issues and
challenges affecting businesses and the environment in which they operate.
The panel discussion during one of the plenary session of the Conference; Global
economic downturn: why CFOs are in the hot seat
The two-day conference touched upon a range of topics and issues; among others
on the global economic downturn, financial scandals, Islamic financing as
alternative for a globalised economy, accountants role in supporting economic
recovery, audit rotation and accounting standards and IFRS. There was even a
special report on the ACCA survey results on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)
Financing.
The Conference delegates
The 16th AFA Conference which attracted
participants from Brunei and all over the ASEAN region was one of the largest
conferences of accountants ever held in Brunei Darussalam.
The 99th AFA Council Meeting
The 99th AFA Council Meeting was also held back to back to the conference on the
7th December 2009 attended by all AFA Primary members and associate members
ACCA, ICA Australia and CPA Australia.
The delegates of the 99th AFA Council Meeting
Speaking to the press after the meeting, the AFA
president Pengiran Haji Moksin highlighted the following decision of the
meeting:
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AFA and its member bodies will work closely with their
respective national accounting standards setting bodies
in the process of setting and implementing accounting
standards, |
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AFA will also continue to work on accounting standards for the SMEs in ASEAN
which its member bodies can voluntarily adopt, |
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AFA will be inviting interested parties for research projects on issues of
policies, capacity building initiatives of the profession in ASEAN based using
the recently launched AFA Research Grants, |
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AFA is also supporting the train the trainers projects
for IFRS for SMEs to be held in Kuala Lumpur in January
2010 where some of its members will be sending their
trainers to the programme, and |
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AFA wishes to congratulate the Brunei Institute of Certified Public
Accountants (BICPA) on its admission to the global accounting fraternity as an
associate member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) |
Pengiran Haji Moksin also introduced to the Press the incoming President of AFA,
Mr Abdul Rahim Bin Hamid, the President of the Malaysian Institute of
Accountants (MIA) who will be assuming the AFA Presidency from January. Mr Abdul Rahim took the opportunity to introduce to the media the World Congress of
Accountants which Malaysia will host from 8 to 11 November 2010.
