Arab Society of Certified Accountants holds its Meeting in Beirut And launches the CIMA and Islamic Finance Certificates

21-Dec-2009

Beirut -21December 2009 – The Arab Society of Certified Accountants (ASCA) held its regular meeting on 21December 2009 in the Lebanese Capital, Beirut under the chairmanship of its Board Chairman, Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, and in the presence of members of the Board of Directors from Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Syria, Libya, and Yemen.

Mr. Abu Ghazaleh opened the meeting with a speech on the global economic crisis and its implications to the Arab world. He announced the initiative of ASCA and Tag-Org to call for the Arab Financial and Accounting Forum to be held in Beirut on 22th December, in cooperation with the Banque de Liban, Union of Arab Banks, World Union of Arab Bankers and the Lebanese Association for Certified Public Accountants to discuss the repercussions of the global economic crisis and explore ways to address them.

Mr. Abu Ghazaleh reviewed ASCA’s management report on its activities during the year 2009 which were a continuation and sustainment of the achievements of ASCA over the past twenty-five years and its endeavor to realize its goals, the most important of which are the Arab capacity building in all areas and branches of the accounting profession which has passed through major and rapid developments over the past two decades. ASCA has been keen to abreast with those developments in order to attain an advanced position amongst the international professional organizations and bodies. The report stated that the number of members has increased up to 1317 members.

The report also indicated that the Arab Certified Professional Accountant (ACPA) certificate issued by ASCA in cooperation with the International Examinations of the University of Cambridge has received official recognition from a number of Arab countries, including Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, UAE, Oman and Lybia, as an accredited qualification for practitioners of accounting and auditing professions and for licensing accountants and auditors. ASCA has recently signed an agreement with the British Chartered Institute of Management Accountants to launch the first-of-its-kind Arab certificate in Islamic finance with the objective of developing the skills of waorjers in institutions involved in providing Islamic finance.

ASCA also launched the “management accountant” certificate concerned with the career development of management accountants. A technical committee was formed to be headed by Mr. Mohammad Basamah, Deputy Chairman of ASCA, and comprised of a number of board members, to develop the curriculum for the certificate. The committee may seek the assistance of experts in the field.

The report reviewed the extensive efforts by ASCA in the areas of qualification and training in all parts of the Arab world. ASCA also issue the Arabic authorized translations of the international accounting, auditing standards and professional code of ethics as adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), in addition to enriching the Arab library with reference books in the certified accounting and auditing.