Flagship fashion - Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants

“ To support the
Institute in
promoting our
qualification
programme in
China, I have been
practising my
Mandarin skills
for the university
accreditation
ceremonies.”
President’s message
Meaningful plans
Dear members,
Last month’s annual away day was
fruitful, with the council spending
two days in Shenzhen to chart the
direction of the Institute and review
the budget for the years ahead.
To make our plans more meaningful, we
talked to many different constituents of our
membership and stakeholders before the away
day to get their views. These views informed our
discussions at the retreat, especially in regard
to the sixth five-year long range plan, which
will consist of strategies to strengthen our six
pillars – constitution and governance, qualification
and education, standards and regulation,
membership and thought leadership, mainland
and international, and communication and
branding. We also talked about introducing a
new goal concerning corporate social responsibility
– “making a difference in society” because
sustaining the world we live in is paramount.
The discussion among all those present was
very energized and constructive, and we have
set up working groups for the many areas that I
will update you on soon.
While we plan ahead, our existing work set
out in the last fifth long range plan keeps going.
One of the aims of the plan was to create
more specialist qualifications and designations
to support members as our profession grows
more sophisticated and the market demands
more of our skills. The advanced diploma in
specialist taxation introduced last month is but
one example of this.
Another area of interest among members is
forensic accounting. The informal forum for
professionals interested in this field set up in
2011 now has more than 540 members. To increase
support for them and elevate the quality
of forensic expertise in Hong Kong, it is time to
turn this into a formal interest group.
We made progress this month in our work
with the mainland when we received a delegation
from the Ministry of Finance to discuss
broad professional issues such as the audit of
H shares and their auditors, China-U.S. cross
country audit regulatory cooperation, and professional
indemnity insurance. We also talked
about issues with direct bearing on our members,
including mutual examination paper exemptions,
allowing our members who hold the
PRC CPA practising qualification to set up CPA
firms in Shenzhen, and simplifying procedures
for our members in applying for temporary licences
to provide audit services in the mainland.
To support the Institute in promoting our
qualification programme in China, I have been
practising my Mandarin skills for the university
accreditation ceremonies over the past few
weeks. Accreditation of accounting programmes
of the top mainland universities paves the way
for the best candidates to study the QP. Chinese
enterprises’ growing expansion overseas means
they need people with an international professional
qualification such as ours.
Lastly, I want to welcome our new members
who joined us in May. I am looking forward
to meeting the 1,600 new members who have
joined us over the past year at the cocktail reception
that is being held in their honour later
this month.
Keith Pogson
President
May 2012 1
COLIN BEERE