South Asia shows resilience to financial crisis: Muhith

AMA Muhith, finance minister, hands over the second runner-up award for the SAFA best presented accounts to Khan Tariqul Islam, chief financial officer of Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd, at a ceremony in Dhaka on Thursday. DBBLStar Business Desk

Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said the economic indicators of South Asian countries have been showing strong resilience in the face of tremendous pressure from the global financial crisis.

"It is now expected that the South Asia region is bouncing back to normal growth of their economies. This is essentially due to the good performance of the real economy and responsible behaviour of the financial sector," Muhith said.

The minister was speaking at the SAFA Best Published Accounts and Governance Disclosures Awards-2008 in Dhaka on Thursday.

The event was organised by the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA), a regional forum of the accounting bodies in Saarc countries, with joint sponsorship from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) and the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB), two accounting bodies.

The professional accounting bodies from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal and national and international dignitaries joined the occasion.

A number of banks, financial institutions, government organisations and NGOs of Bangladesh received awards at the function along with the awardees of other South Asian countries. Also, some other Bangladeshi companies received certificates of merit.

The awardees from Bangladesh include Prime Bank Ltd, Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd, Prime Finance and Investment Ltd, Singer Bangladesh Ltd, BRAC, BURO Bangladesh, Sajida Foundation, and Investment Corporation of Bangladesh.

Speaking as chief guest at the event, Muhith said: “SAFA member bodies have certainly great contributions particularly in the area of transparent financial reporting of the entities."

"I feel that we should acknowledge the healthy contribution of our association of chartered and cost accountants in ensuring transparent and responsible financial reporting of our financial institutions in particular.”

Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said: “In the context of the present ongoing financial crises around the globe the role of chartered accountants particularly in South Asian countries was extremely important."

"Successful resource mobilisation and efficient management of the resources was the lifeline of a country's economic growth. But without the expertise of the chartered accountants it was very difficult to ensure appropriate financial management and discipline in the application of resources.”

SAFA President Sheikh A Hafiz said accountants, as the guardian of financial information, must strive to ensure that financial statements were accurate and the objective was to ensure that managers, investors and regulators could understand the true financial condition of the organisations that they manage, invests and regulate.

"The awards encourage recognition for harmonisation of best regional and global financial reporting and corporate governance practices. I sincerely hope that the award ceremony continues to achieve its intended objectives,” he said.

ICAB President Nasir Uddin Ahmed said organising such awards by SAFA indicates its preference towards the enhancement of good governance, transparency in financial reporting with adequate disclosures and application of internationally accepted accounting and auditing standards in the Saarc region.

"It had a long-term positive effect on corporate reporting culture & standards in this region," he said.

“We would be able to take our financial reporting and corporate governance standards to globally acceptable level through organising this annual events among SAFA countries. Such events encourage participants to enhance quality of their annual financial reports to win this prestigious award," he added.

SAFA was formed in 1984 with an aim to harmonise the accounting profession on uniform standards and codes in the South Asian region.