President Abdul Hamid on Saturday called for concerted efforts of chartered accountants to alleviate poverty in South Asia and stressed the need for the use of information technology to ensure transparency and accountability in accounting as well as provide desired services to the people.‘It’s a sacred duty of all to establish the highest security culture in financial sector . . . The chartered accountants have the opportunity to ensure transparency and accountability in financial management and good governance in this region,’ he said while inaugurating the three-day conference of the South Asian Federation of Accountants in a city hotel.The president said lack of awareness, transparency and accountability in financial activities is a threat to each institution as well as country and the information technology would help enhance the quality of professional accounting and scrutinising.Referring to poverty deemed as the main challenge in the South Asia region, Hamid said the members of SAARC countries are fighting against this menace to free their people from the curse of poverty. ‘Concerted efforts are imperative to address poverty both from public and private corners,’ he added. Hamid said with the passage of time corporate culture has been emerged as an important driving force to boost and expand economy along with government venture and huge investment has been made in the economy both from domestic and international sources for attaining a sustainable development. The corporate sector is contributing a lot to production, job generation and investment coping with the uninterrupted trend of growth and speedy socio-economic progress, the president hoped. ‘The corporate sector under the corporate social responsibility will also be able to contribute to social development alongside the financial sector,’ he observed. Terming the SAFA conference a good opportunity of sharing and enriching knowledge and technology among professional accountants and experts of the. SAARC countries, the president hoped that the chartered accountants, within the jurisdiction of their professional ethics and ideologies, would play a responsible role in bringing accuracy and transparency in public and corporate sectors. Describing South Asia as a potential area with about one-fourth world’s population, Hamid said, ‘If it is possible to develop manpower into human resources, it would introduce a new horizon of development in this region.’ This SAFA Regional CFO Conference would open a window of opportunity to share and exchange professional knowledge among all concerned including the accountants and its bodies, he added. The president also lauded the theme of the conference ‘Navigating through Digital Transformation towards Better Accountability’ terming it time-befitting in line with Digital Bangladesh. He wished SAFA Regional CFO Conference 2017, organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, a grand success. Planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, commerce ministry senior secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, International Accounting Standards Board chairman Hans Hoogervorst, International Federation of Accountants chief executive officer ASM Nayeem and SAFA president Adeeb Hossain Khan were present, among others.
