President’s message

I am delighted to announce that the Council has appointed a new Chief Executive and Registrar of the Institute. Margaret Chan, an Institute member, will be joining on 11 July. This fulfils one of the key tasks the Council had set itself for the year and enables the Institute to further its preparations for the future and Accounting Plus.

Margaret has over 30 years of work experience in accounting, finance and corporate development – all will be useful in helping the transformation of the Institute. I am personally very pleased that we have been able to attract someone with her calibre and track record to lead the Institute through the opportunities ahead.

It’s an exciting time for Margaret to be joining the Institute and I look forward to working with her promoting the profession, which is key task of the leadership.

On 9 June, the TVB programme Finance Magazine featured interviews with me, Acting Registrar Jonathan Ng, and two young members in a report on the accounting profession. We spoke about the development of the profession and the prospects brought by the Accounting Plus era. The report also featured how the new Qualification Programme (QP), which will begin rolling out later this year, will prepare future accountants for career success. I am pleased to say we’ve had good feedback on the feature.

This year we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the QP with a special logo design competition. Take part and design an anniversary logo for the programme. More details are available on the Institute’s website.

I enjoyed attending the Five-Points Invitational Sports Competition with Vice-President Nelson Lam. Featuring our members and representatives from the Audit Commission, Companies Registry, Inland Revenue Department and The Treasury. We cheered on our CPAs in badminton and table tennis. I am pleased to say that we won both of the competitions. It’s always good to see our accountants demonstrate their range of “Pluses” in different situations.

Nelson and I also cheered our paddlers on at the Recreation and Sports Club for Hong Kong Professional Bodies Dragon Boat Competition, held on 23 June. It is nice to meet with representatives from the other bodies and we had a great time by the water watching the dedicated paddlers in action.

As a final note on sports success, I represented the Institute at the Chamber of Commerce Cup award ceremony, where six of our teams collected awards for their success in the Hong Kong Marathon. The teams won the top spot and second place in all three categories (10 kilometre, half marathon and full marathon). Our members were clearly Accountants Plus Sports Stars this month.

Turning back to our formal engagements. I would like to express my thanks for Vice-President Johnson Kong, who led a delegation of 30 representatives from small- and medium-sized practices to Huizhou on 20 June. The group learned about the latest economic development there and explored business cooperation opportunities brought by the Greater Bay Area initiative.

We also promoted the profession’s links this month through the leadership’s trip to Beijing on 20 and 21 June. During our time there we met with senior officials from Mainland authorities, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants. We discussed various topics with the objective of maintaining the good relationships we have with these authorities and to advocate for the needs of our members operating in the Mainland.

Finally, with the Vice-Presidents I met with another group of important stakeholders for the Institute – non-governmental organizations. The latest NGO Directors’ Luncheon which are a series of regular events designed to help NGOs by sharing the best practice on various topics. At the luncheon we discussed corporate governance, with the Consumer Council also giving a presentation on the topic. I shared with the attendees the importance the Institute places on governance, and how we organize the Best Corporate Governance Awards to help promote good corporate governance in Hong Kong-based and listed organizations. The 2019 awards will be open for entry in July – keep an eye on our website for more information.