WCOA 2010 TO TACKLE CHALLENGES, PROMOTE ISLAMIC FINANCE

By Abdul Muin Majid

DUBAI, June 30 (Bernama) -- The 18th World Congress of Accountants (WCOA)
2010 to be hosted by Malaysia in November will provide an opportunity to find
solutions to challenges brought about by the recent financial crisis, according
to the organisers.

Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid, president of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants
(MIA), said they included the increasing need for high-quality international
standards, corporate governance, risk management and control, as well the
potential over-regulation of small and medium-sized enterprises.

MIA has joined hands with the International Federation of Accountants
(IFAC) to organise the Nov 8-11 event, dubbed the "Olympics of the accountancy
profession", at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

"MIA is also working closely with the Malaysia Islamic Financial Centre
(MIFC) to promote Islamic finance at WCOA 2010

"MIFC will use the WCOA Kuala Lumpur platform to offer unique perpectives
on reviving faith in Islamic finance that will be insightful to business and
financial leaders," he told Bernama.

The congress was held every five years since 1977 and every four years
since 2002. Turkey hosted the 2006 edition.

Abdul Rahim said he was currently travelling across the Middle East to
promote WCOA 2010 among the region's financial and business leaders as well as
the accounting fraternity.

"It's so important for us that this region is well-represented at the
Kuala Lumpur congress," said the MIA president, who is accompanied on the trip
by MIA's head of communications, Iszudin Mohamad Amin.

They had visited Riyadh and after Dubai. They are heading for meetings
in Tehran, Amman, Beirut and Cairo.

Under the theme "Accountants: Sustaining Value Creation", WCOA 2010 seeks
to demonstrate the role of accountants in not only creating value and upholding
business integrity, but also in safeguarding assets for future generations.

He said accountants needed to urgently rethink their role to see how they
could add value to the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental
aspects of a company's performance.

"As value creation becomes vital to the business agenda, more accountants
are taking on strategic and leadership roles and are increasingly being held
accountable for business performance," he said.

Abdul Rahim said achieving long-term sustainable organisations through
value creation would be the overarching theme of WCOA 2010.

"Sustainable practices need to extend beyond traditional ways of building
strategies, monitoring performance and reporting of value, making this world
congress essential for all professional accountants, their employers and
customers," he said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is expected to open WCOA 2010.

The congress is expected to attract more than 6,000 delegates from 159
members and associates of IFAC in 124 countries.

The speakers include China's Vice-Minister of Finance Wang Jun,
International Public Interest Oversight Board chairman Stavros Thomadakis and
International Accounting Standards Board chairman Sir David Tweedie.

Others are International Valuation Standards Council chairman Michel Prada
and Bank Negara Malaysia (central Bank) governor Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

The plenary and workshop sessions of WCOA 2010 will feature more than 150
experts and business leaders from over 40 countries.

Plenary topics are sustaining value creation, Islamic finance, accounting
for sustainability and creating the accountants' future.

The topics for interactive workshops include climate change reporting,
forensic accounting in a digital environment and human governance.

-- BERNAMA



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