Syrian Profession Receives Helping Hand from Arab Organizations
01 Jul 2007Two of the Arab world’s leading accountancy organizations are making significant inroads into Syria in a bid to help the profession to develop.
The Arab Society for Certified Accountants (ASCA) has agreed to set up a new center in the Middle East nation to prepare accountants for its ASCA qualification program. Initially, the new center will take up to 50 students a year with plans to expand the preparation program into the hundreds.
ASCA’s Chairman, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, recently met with Syria’s First Lady Asmaa’ Al Assad and several other senior government officials to discuss development initiatives as well as training for accountants both in practice and in business. “This is coming at a time when Syria is trying to liberalize its banking system and is trying to liberalize many other services and that requires accounting services and accounting qualifications,” Abu-Ghazaleh said.
“Syria is not what people read in the press. Syria is a country with a culture, with human resources and natural resources and has a great economic potential. I have no doubt about the future of the Syrian economy because it is an economy which so far has been able to survive on almost complete self-sufficiency, and once it opens up it is inevitable that it will have a very important economic role in the region and the world.”
Many initiatives
In light of these meetings, the ASCA and Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAGorg), an independent accounting and business conglomerate that Abu-Ghazaleh leads, will step up plans to help develop the accounting profession on several fronts.
Accountants in practice will be offered continuous education programs to develop their knowledge of international accounting and auditing standards. The ASCA is the official translator of international standards into Arabic and will work in collaboration with the Syrian Association for Certified Accountants. “That applies to accounting standards, auditing standards, ethical standards and public sector standards. We produce all of these standards annually and update them annually under a licensing agreement with international bodies,” Abu-Ghazaleh explained.
Another initiative involves the capacity building of more Arabic certified public accountants through the ASCA qualification. “What is needed is a preparation course to be able to sit for the ASCA exams. So we will be establishing a center that would prepare candidates, like we did in many countries,” the ASCA’s Chairman added. “Over the next ten years we need a couple of thousand of certified public accountants to be trained and qualified in Syria. That is a small number for a huge country and a huge economy. We have almost a sole responsibility for building capacity in this region. If you talk about the second level, which is accountants in industry, we are talking about tens of thousands that need to be trained and educated.”
Help for other professions
TAGorg will also offer courses to other finance professionals, such as bankers, to learn specialized accounting and finance skills. In addition, TAGorg has teamed up with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to offer Syrian businesses a micro, small and medium enterprise toolbox. Abu-Ghazaleh added: “This is a co-branded product used by the TAGorg and the UNDP in order to help small- and medium-sized business with everything they need from conducting a market study, feasibility studies, to producing financial reports, management personnel, everything. That’s a complete solution for small companies. We already launched this in Jordan and we are now arranging to launch it in Syria and Morocco and other Arab countries.”
Meanwhile, Abu-Ghazaleh will help set up a council to promote the values of corporate social responsibility in line with voluntary corporate responsibility initiative the UN Global Compact. The council will be composed of various members of Syria’s Society, including those in the business, government, education and civil sectors.
Abu-Ghazaleh, the Vice-Chairman of the UN initiative, told TA there is a growing desire by Syrians to become more socially responsible. “There is a realization that a lot has to be done and we have been asked, among other things, to advise on the stock exchange procedures and policies and how we can evaluate and value the financial reports of companies. There is great realization whether it is at the education level, or at the accountant’s level or auditor’s level that there is a lot that needs to be done,” he remarked.
Arvind Hickman
Follow us
