AFAANZ To Examine Int. Accounting Standards

AFAANZ To Examine Long Term Impact Of International Accounting Standards

The Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) will examine the impact of forthcoming adoption of international accounting standards on tertiary education, professional development programmes, teaching, and research, at the AFAANZ trans-Tasman conference Alice Springs in July 2004.

Australia and New Zealand will adopt international accounting standards in 2005 and 2007 respectively, as part of a worldwide move to harmonise corporate reporting. The standards will become law in both countries necessitating an historic changeover by Australia and New Zealand to an agreed common set of standards.

The impact of the transition will be discussed in a paper presented for the first time at the AFAANZ 2004 Conference by UK based authority Kevin Stevenson, Director of Technical Activities for the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and Chairman of the IASB’s International Financial Reporting Interpretation Committee.

The paper will discuss the critical IASB decisions now being made, as new international standards are finalised, and how these may substantially change International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Mr Stevenson will also identify issues that may prove challenging for Australia and New Zealand. The conference will also provide a forum for debate and discussion about the IFRS transition through a panel of experts including Jan McCahey, the lead partner, financial reporting AFAANZ President (Australia) Professor Colin Ferguson said the conference
was likely to identify broader strategic issues for Australia and New Zealand.

“Public discussion of the new regime has centred on the impact on private and public companies. AFAANZ is providing a timely global insight directly from the IASB to highlight impacts beyond the commercial sector, ” he said.

Keynote speaker Professor Tom Groot, Professor of Management Accounting at the Vrije Universteit, Amsterdam will also address the conference.

Professor Groot is Head of the Department of Accounting and Director of the Amsterdam Research Center in Accounting (ARCA). His research activities concentrate on performance management, financial management of non-profit organizations and management control.

AFAANZ is the premier professional organisation representing the interests of accounting and finance academics, other professionals and stakeholders with involvements in accounting and finance education and research in Australia and New Zealand.

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