July
AUSTRALIA
Coverage of ACCA's stand against money laundering and the need for the country to focus on the reporting of serious crimes and avoid trivial matters was received in ‘The Australian'.
CARIBBEAN
Christine Sahadeo, Minister for the Ministry of Finance recently met with a team of ACCA head officials who visited the ACCA Caribbean Head office in Trinidad. Together with joint scheme partners in Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad, ACCA is the largest provider of Accounting Technicians and accountants practising in some 24 Caribbean territories reported the ‘Business Express'.
CHINA (Mainland)
Recent research on the value of the ACCA was featured on the ‘EOL website' and the ‘Guangzhou Daily' went as far as to recommend the ACCA qualification as first choice for the employees in accounting industry.
‘Shanghai Education' ‘TV', ‘Shanghai Morning Post' and ‘Wen Hui Daily' all covered the final round of Job Hunting Camp and Competition which was held in Shanghai and won by a junior student from Fudan University. Many well-known companies such as GE and Pepsi Food were in attendance and considered the competition as a good way to recruit qualified graduates.
The 2006 World Cup in Germany has “afforded Trinidad and Tobago, and Angostura a world stage” according to Director, secretary for Angostura House, Michael Carballo, FCCA. ‘The Guardian' reported this in a story covering the launch of the “State of Play”, a new series of pre-seminar case studies presented by ACCA. The study preceded a professional development seminar covering the fundamentals of marketing.
ETHIOPIA
The ceremony to mark the successful completion of ACCA's exams by 36 affiliates received extensive coverage, making it into ‘Addis Admas,' ‘Reporter' (Amharic language), ‘Capital', ‘ The Ethiopian Herald', ‘Daily Monitor' (English language), ‘Addis Zeman', ‘Addis Lisan' and ‘Negadras'. The event was attended by Tadesse Haile, Ethiopian state minister of Trade and Industry who said accountants with a good knowledge of current international situations can play a vital role in ensuring the sustainability of the country's economic infrastructure development.
HONG KONG
In an interview with ‘Career Times' Mark Coggins, CEO of Kaplan International, Asia, talked about the significant growth in financial training, particularly in the past six months. Kaplan International have more than 30,000 enrolments on ACCA courses yearly.
ACCA research was covered by ‘Recruit' who printed the results of a recent wealth management survey.
The proposed introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST) proved a hot topic with ACCA's expert opinion receiving coverage in ‘Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting online news', ‘ETNet.com', ‘Metro Broadcast online news', ‘Takungpao.com', ‘Ta Kung Pao', ‘Sing Tao Daily', ‘SCMP', and ‘The Sun'. ACCA HK supports GST as an appropriate approach to stabilise the tax revenue of Hong Kong, however also believes the effectiveness of the GST system relies on the design and preparation.
The ACCA HK President, Dilys Chan was featured in ‘Jessica Magazine' where she shared her mission to serve the community, and those who are in need of the profession, through the ACCA and events such as seminars, conferences and mentorship. She also shared how she entered the world of accounting and how her success today is gained through hard work and dedication.
The ACCA HK President was also one of the invited speakers at a ‘Recruit' Employment roundtable meeting. She mentioned the current double digit turnover rate in the accounting industry and stressed the importance of language skills for contemporary managers, the story was covered by ‘China Daily'. ‘Recruit' also provided coverage of the issue stating the President's solution to the turnover rate; controlling it with a fair salary solution, developing a sense of belonging and the correct match of talent and job responsibilities.
‘Job Market', ‘Job Market Education Series' and ‘HKET' all featured general interest interviews, with ACCA members or professionals.
IRELAND
‘Irish Times' covers the award of honorary ACCA membership to David Devlin, President of the European accountants' representative body FEE (Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens) and partner at PwC in Dublin.
The ‘Sunday Independent' featured an article which looks at how the stereotypical images of accountants are now outdated. The article included comments from ACCA about ACCA's “young and dynamic membership base”, the varied roles now being taken by accountants and ACCA's large percentage of female membership.
ACCA's warning that people with overseas properties need to ensure local ‘wealth taxes' are paid, was issued in ‘The Irish Independent' and ‘RTE Website'. Being ignorant of property tax implications could result in the buyer ending up in prison, stated ACCA's Aiden Clifford. Interviews with Aiden Clifford on the foreign investment topic were aired on ‘South East Radio', ‘Tipp FM' and ‘Clare FM'.
MALAYSIA
ACCA Careers attracted more than 2,300 visitors according to ‘The Star'. The exhibition hall was packed with members and affiliates exploring career opportunities with organisations like Shell, Dell, KPMG, Grant Thornton and IBM.
The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ACCA and the University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) received coverage in ‘The Star', ‘China Press', and ‘Sin Chew Daily'. The MoU underlines collaboration between the two
organisations to provide students the opportunity to gain professional qualifications. Present for the signing were Mr Allen Blewitt, ACCA Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Dr Ng Lay Swee, UTAR President and Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, UTAR Council Chairman. ACCA's signing was represented by Dr Ng Lay Swee and Tay Kay Luan, Head of ACCA Malaysia.
MAURITIUS
‘L'Express' featured an article entitled, “IFRS – US convergence of accounting standards”, by ACCA Vice President Richard Aitken-Davies and head of financial reporting Richard Martin.
POLAND
The conference on the role of the financial director in Polish subsidiaries of international companies, which was organised by Financial Director Polska under the ACCA patronage, was covered by ‘Biznes Warszawski'.
ACCA was the topic of a lecture by the President of the Polish Member's Executive Committee at the 2nd MBA Congress, and this was mentioned in ‘Kurier'.
ROMANIA
A presentation made by the ACCA Romania Country Manager regarding the ACCA Professional scheme was discussed in ‘Cariere'.
SINGAPORE
Results of the research by CFO Asia and ACCA, and the subsequent panel discussion highlighted prominently that CFOs in Asia view building an ethical culture as much more important now than five years ago. Coverage appeared in ‘the Business Times', ‘Asiaone's website', ‘The Straits Times', ‘TODAY', and ‘Todayonline.'
‘Channel News Asia' also covered the CFO Asia and ACCA research in an interview with ACCA's Chief Executive for its news segment. ‘Channel News Asia' aired ACCA's thoughts on shareholders in Singapore putting more pressure on institutional investors in the next few years and the hard questions those shareholders will be asking about ethical issues. ‘Mediacorp Radio, Newsradio' also ran an interview with the Chief Executive on the topic.
A MoU reached by ACCA and SHRI received coverage in ‘The Business Times', ‘Mediacorp Radio Newsradio 93.8FM', ‘Asiaone's website' and ‘Today'. They explained the areas where both bodies intend to collaborate and the ACCA Chief Executive and SHRI Executive Director were quoted on how they see members of both bodies benefiting from the MoU.
SRI LANKA
Mr Dilshan Rodrigo became the President of ACCA Sri Lanka and the appointment was announced in the ‘Sunday Leader'.
SOUTH AFRICA
Anglo Platinum, the world's biggest platinum miner, took top honours yesterday at the ACCA awards for sustainability reporting for 2005/6, 'Business Day' and ‘Beeld' reported.
‘CEO Magazine' mentioned ACCA's promotion of transparency in the reporting of organisations' social and environmental impacts for over a decade.
UGANDA
‘Daily Monitor' reports that ACCA will hold its first ever sports gala for students and members, which will raise funds for charity work in the community. The event has been sponsored by companies including Nile Bank and the Capital Markets Authority.
UNITED KINGDOM
The news that ACCA has been recruited by the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants to help train university accounting teachers was covered twice on separate occasions in the ‘Financial Times'. This move is hoped to reassure foreign fund managers and business executives, who have invested billions of dollars in the ‘red-hot' economy, by creating even more transparency in Chinese accounting.
An ACCA survey into practising member's views about HMRC received coverage in ‘Mail on Sunday', ‘The Times', and ‘The Herald' (Scotland). The survey found that most members feel Customs & Excise's more aggressive mentality has won out over the more measured, old Inland Revenue approach in the UK's merged tax authority.
The Government promised to reconsider changes to the tax return deadlines. This was a breakthrough as it came following lobbying by important financial bodies, including ACCA, and was covered by the ‘Financial Times' and ‘Daily Express'.
ACCA's expert opinions on issues such as IFRS, the creation of Criminal Taxes Unit, child tax credits, overseas property taxes and age discrimination legislation were featured in a number of stories in publications including ‘The Herald' (Scotland), ‘The Guardian', ‘Express on Sunday', ‘the Daily Express' and ‘Daily Telegraph'. In the ‘Isle of Man Today' the ACCA's opinion was also featured in an article about the appointment of an auditor general.
David Devlin, European accountants' representative body FEE (Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens) and partner at PwC in Dublin made the ‘Financial Times' for being made an honorary member by ACCA.
VIETNAM
The ACCA graduation ceremonies in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City at which over 60 students received certificates were covered in the ‘Saigon Times'. The ‘Vietnam Investment Review' also covered the Hanoi ceremony where Vice Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha said that Vietnam's entry into the WTO would set a number of challenges for the local auditing sector. ACCA's chief representative in Vietnam was quoted on the opportunities available to ACCA qualified accountants.