The Chairman of Arab Society of Certified Accountants announces the plans of the Society at the 5th Middle East IFRS and Accounting Summit in Dubai

Dubai - 5 November 2009 - Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, in his capacity as the Chairman of Arab Society for Certified Accountants (ASCA) delivered a keynote speech at the 5th Middle East IFRS and Accounting Summit, which took place yesterday morning in Dubai.

Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh addressed three main topics, the first of which was the global financial and economic crisis and its impact on the Arab region as well as on the accounting profession in the world and the Arab region. He highlighted the risks of legal claims filed with US, British and Western courts against accounting firms in the wake of bankruptcies of the companies which the accounting firms were auditing; ?Consequently, there is an urgent need that the profession in the world should take action to protect those big accounting firms.? He said.

As for the Arab region, he announced that ASCA was organizing an international conference under the auspices of His Excellency the Lebanese President on 22nd & 23rd of the coming December, in cooperation with the Central Bank of Lebanon, the Union of Arab Banks, Lebanese Association of Certified Public Accountants and World Union of Arab Bankers. The Conference will discuss the merits of the G20 Summit?s financial and accounting resolutions.

ASCA will present ten special programs dealing with the requirements called for by the three G20 Summits, including stress test program, cash flow test program, hedging activities program, fair value measurement program, forensic accounting, and others.

On the second topic of the speech, Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh reviewed the situation of the accounting profession in the Arab world and focused on the necessity of complying with and implementing the IFRS, which was also stressed by the G20 Summits. To this end, he called for the establishment of an Arab advisory council to be dedicated for this issue and to work under the umbrella of the International Financial Reporting Standards Board in order not to waste time in futile attempts to formulate local or contending standards because there is no place in this interconnected world except for the IFRS.

On this occasion, he pointed out that ASCA, for more than two decades, has been translating the international accounting and auditing standards, and many other guides and references into Arabic under the concession contracts from the Boards that issue these standards in English.

Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh announced, in the third topic, the translation of Islamic trading and accounting standards and the launch of a qualification program for a certified accountant qualification in Islamic accounting in collaboration with the British Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). He said that the program will be introduced in the Arab Financial and Accounting Forum to be held on next December 22/23 in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

A number of media and press sources published news articles on the 5th Middle East IFRS and Accounting Summit and the speech of Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh. Most notably, in its report on the Summit, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) highlighted large portions of Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh?s keynote speech. WAM quoted him confirming that the Arab world has adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards, and that the Arab countries were the least affected by the global crisis due to the control exercised by their regulatory bodies on the banks compared to other countries where there was no such control.