Vietnam offers new financial reporting diploma

Launched on January 21, the Diploma (DipIFR) is designed to develop finance professionals’ knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and their application to firms’ financial reports in Vietnam.
IFRS is a set of accounting standards developed by an independent organisation called the International Accounting Standards Board. The goal of IFRS is to provide a global framework for companies to prepare and disclose their financial statements.

Lucia Martin, director of Emerging Markets from ACCA, told VIR at the launch of the programme: “The DipIFR course will help finance professionals in Vietnam to understand the principles and concepts of IFRS, as well as to apply these standards to the financial reports of their companies.”

According to Professor Brendan O’Connell from RMIT Australia, IFRS is currently applied in 113 countries around the world. In Vietnam at the moment around 10,000 foreign direct investment firms require reports to be written in IFRS.

Truc Nguyen, chief financial officer of HSBC Vietnam, stressed the importance of these global accounting standards, stating “By converging into IFRS, companies in Vietnam would be able to benefit from economic integration, gain greater access to foreign capital, remain competitive and achieve sustainable growth.”
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) revealed that the current 26 Vietnamese accounting standards would be revised using IFRS as the benchmark.

Dang Thai Hung, director of the Department of Accounting & Auditing Policies at the MoF, said that this process will take up to three years, with as many as 15 new standards to be potentially added.
The first DipIFR course in Vietnam will commence in February. Each year, DipIFR exams are offered in June and December worldwide.