Bangladesh has made tremendous progress in strengthening the pillars of the financial reporting supply chain by adopting a number of international financial reporting and auditing standards, World Bank says in a report. The 2014 update to ‘Report on Bangladesh-Observance of Standards and Codes: Accounting and Auditing’ was published at a WB workshop held at city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) on Sunday. The report said the country has successfully implemented a number of key policy recommendations made in the report’s 2003 version to improve financial reporting framework for regulated entities such as listed companies, financial and insurance sector entities. The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), IFRS for SMEs, and the International Standards on Auditing (ISA) have been adopted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) and are at different stages of implementation to strengthen accountancy profession, it says. The recommendations were implemented with the assistance of the WB and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICEAW). The new report assesses the degree to which the policy recommendations of 2003 report have been implemented, identifies issues that have emerged since the last review, and proposes a number of policy recommendations aimed at further improving the quality of corporate financial reporting and auditing which contributes to improving country’s business climate, investors’ confidence and economic growth potential of Bangladesh. Addressing the workshop, State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan stressed on professional integrity, transparency, accountability, proper presentation of accounting profession for ensuring an appropriate development of Bangladesh’s economy. “This is the time of development of the country. Accounting professionals can play a vital role at this moment to accelerate the ongoing development process. Let us work together to progress the country,” he said. Acting Country Director of World Bank (WB) Christine E Kimes and President and Chair of ROSC steering Committee, ICAB Masih Malik Chowdhury delivered the welcome address on the occasion. The state minister said Bangladesh has made a remarkable progress in many sectors under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and to continue the development everybody have to work irrespective of caste, creed and religions. The acting country director of WB laid emphasis on increasing chartered accountants of the country to maintain pace with the development. Among others, Practice Director of WB Samia Msadek and Senior Financial Management Specialist of World Bank Suraiya Zannath also spoke on the occasion.
