Governor of UAE Central Bank opens region's first International Financial Reporting Conference

Some of the accountancy industry's most prominent figures are in Dubai today for the Middle East's first International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) conference. More than 15 international industry experts will be sharing their experience at the event, organised by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

The application of IFRS, also known as International Accounting Standards (IAS), ensures the efficient recording of all finance-related business processes, and allows all the elements of a company to be judged according to the same criteria. The conference has been preceded and will be followed by workshops instructing delegates on how to implement the latest changes to IFRS/IAS and thus ensure that the financial statements of their organisations comply with the latest international financial reporting standards.

H.E. Sultan Bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, governor of the Central Bank of the UAE, will this morning begin the conference by delivering the inaugural address.

Ken Wild, global leader of IAS at Deloitte and an advisor to the UK Treasury, will discuss his experience as an expert in financial reporting, while Walt Pavlo, who was imprisoned for his role in a finance scam at MCI Telecommunications, will speak on creative accounting.

Pavlo, who is now director of business development at the Young Entrepreneurs Alliance USA, illegally protected MCI's stock price for the benefit of executives who had loaded up on stock options, resulting in a fraud worth US$6 million. He currently shares that experience in the training of federal agents, students and businesspeople.

"IFRS is a collection of dependable accounting standards that facilitate uniformity in financial reporting around the world," said Cordelia Henry, Conference Director, IIR Middle East. "As the Middle East's first conference based on the standards, this is an exciting opportunity for locally-based corporates to discover how they can learn more about International Accounting Standards. With a number of expert speakers sharing their varied perspectives and two one-day workshops accompanying the main event, the whole programme is of international significance."

"The authoritative panel comprises senior experts from the academic and the business world, many of whom have advised governments and FTSE 100 companies on their financial reporting procedures," added Henry. "They are coming from across the region, Europe and the US to participate in the only event of its kind to take place in the Middle East. All companies based in the region stand to gain from implementing IFRS processes, and we look forward to welcoming delegates from many industries."

Senior Business Figures in Attendance
Delegates registered for participation in the conference include senior and chief financial controllers, directors and vice presidents of finance, senior accountants and heads of internal auditing, culled from a wide variety of the region's most prominent enterprises.

The first workshop, held yesterday, concentrated on the changes to IFRS/IAS and the improvement projects, while the post-conference workshop will have as its focus technical revisions to IFRS/IAS financial instruments 32 and 39. The workshop will focus on international standards compliance in complicated areas such as accounting entries, hedge effectiveness measurements, foreign exchange, interest rates, commodities and equity investment hedging.

Gold sponsor Fernbach - the leading provider of software for the financial industry - is supporting the event, which is endorsed by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

The first Middle East International Financial Reporting Standards conference is organised by IIR Middle East and will be held today and tomorrow at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dubai. The first workshop took place successfully yesterday; the second is scheduled for the 9th June.