Kreston International 2019 Asia Pacific & China Joint Conference.
From July 3 to 7, 2019, the 2019 Asia Pacific & China Joint Conference Shenzhen of Kreston International, of which we are a member, was held in Shenzhen, also known as the Silicon Valley of China. The conference was attended by 106 Kreston members from 32 countries and regions, and for the first time, ARK’s three members in charge, Goto, Nagai, and Nagamatsu, participated in the conference.
Thursday 4 July
The first day’s program started with opening remarks by Andrew Collier.
Liza Robbins(CEO), introduced herself and announced the firm’s strategy for the future.
Yvonne Wong then introduced Shezhen, the venue for the conference, and gave an overview of its future prospects. The talk was about the attractiveness of Greater Bay Area, or GBA for short, which is comparable to the world’s largest metropolitan areas in the world, the San Francisco Bay Area and the New York metropolitan area in the U.S. and the Tokyo Bay Metropolitan Area in Japan.
An accounting session began after lunch. The session was led by Dr. Jun Gu and Mr. Andrew Collier, and they gave a lecture on the state of accounting education and the latest information on IFRS.
The session was interspersed with enthusiastic presentations by member firms, making for a productive first day.
Breakout sessions
There were six sessions available and we attended an audit session, which focused on feedback from Kreston’s quality control review, the latest international auditing standards, international accounting standards, and the U.S. trends.
The discussion session was followed by an active exchange of views among the member firms on specific examples of how they, as members of Kreston, determine compensation for audits of global firms and how information technology should be effectively utilized. There was one case in which a letter of confirmation was processed electronically, and we felt the importance of incorporating information technology into audits.
Networking & fellowship program
On the last day, we went sightseeing in the city with other participants of the conference. The city of Shenzhen has a lot of greenery and parks, and the size of the city is astonishing. Sidewalks are wide, there is no litter, and the city is very clean and beautiful. On the last day of the tour, we could get to know each farm member better, and we tried to further deepen our friendship with each other.
It was our first time to attend the conference, but we could not believe that it was our first time since there were so many friendly members.
The most important thing for us at this conference was to develop a network form which our clients can feel secure in requesting us to provide audit services and other support services overseas. We were also able to meet and greet some of the international executives, who will facilitate our future interactions with them.