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The Association Of Southeast Asian Nations

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967 with initially 5 member countries which are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Later Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia joined the association, forming 10 member countries in total. The aims and purposes of the ASEAN include accelerating economic, social and cultural development to enhance competitive advantage in the region and promoting regional peace, stability and collaboration among its member countries (Association of South East Asian Nations, 2015b). In 2003, the member countries agreed to establish the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) as part of the regional integration efforts. The AEC is scheduled to …show more content…

This would enables investors and creditors to evaluate financial information consistently over time and among different companies. Thus, the ASEAN countries would also need to move toward a single set of global accounting and financial reporting standards in the future to align with other nations.
Although the accounting standards used in each ASEAN member countries are independently governed by the regulator of each respective member countries, the ASEAN Federation of Accountants (AFA) is the key regional accounting organisation for the national associations of accounting professionals of its member countries (ASEAN Federation of Accountants, 2015a). One of the objectives of the AFA is to advance the status of accounting profession in the region (ASEAN Federation of Accountants, 2015b). The AFA supports the IFRS as an appropriate accounting practice to be used in all ASEAN member countries (Ahmed & Jahangir, 2006). Table 1 illustrates the current status toward the adoption of the IFRS among the ASEAN 10 member countries. As of 2015, seven countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Myanmar have already adopted IFRS and the IFRS for SMEs either as issued by the IASB or with some degree of modification. The other three countries, namely, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam are taking into account the IFRS in developing their local standards.
The complexities of legal structures and regulatory environment as well as the

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