BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PROFESSIONALS in the Accounting field will be participating in a five-day (May 16 – 20) Train the Trainers Workshop on the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Headquarters.
An opening ceremony held this morning (May 16) at the ECCB’ Auditorium saw some 51 accountants from the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) member countries attending the workshop, which will focus on the standards, interpretations, framework and requirements of the IFRS.
The workshop is being facilitated by Academic Advisor to the IASB and Professor of Accounting, Stanford University and former IASB member, Mary Barth; Chairman of IFRS Interpretations Committee and former IASB member, Bob Garnett; and Director of IFRS Education Initiative, IFRS Foundation, Michael Wells.
Governor of the ECCB Sir K. Dwight Venner said that the purpose of the workshop is to raise the participants’ accounting standards to an international level and have them train other accountants upon return to their respective homelands.
“This workshop is part of the World Bank project to improve the accounting standards in the OECS EC Currency Union. This is one of the events that will be taking place which produces a five-year project with a grant of EC$1.2M; so it is very important that we get our accountants up to international standards. This week they will be doing a Train the Trainers course which will qualify them to instruct other accountants to bring them up to that standard as well,” said Venner.
Sir Dwight said the project under which the workshop has been organised is a very critical element in their strategies for the development of the economy’s EC member countries.
He expressed his gratitude to the World Bank for sponsoring the project and noted that they have been trying for a very long time to get the workshop organised.
He went on to say that there are four organisations which have been targeted for workshop projects – Accountants, Bankers, Insurance and Credit Unions.
Director Wells said that the IFRS for Small and Medium Entities (SME) is about trying to build a capacity for small and medium-sized enterprises to gain access to finance.
He also said that the workshop presents an opportunity for them to try and develop a capacity to train trainers so that they [trainers] could go out, train others and help small and medium enterprises gain access to their capital, as it is one of the stumbling blocks that these enterprises face.
Wells further said that he hopes the IFRS for SME has in some small way contributed to the development of the Caribbean through this workshop.
The International Financial Reporting Standards are principles-based standards, interpretation and framework adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board.
