Accountancy Consultation Underway

A consultation is underway on a proposal to reform regulation of the accountancy profession and the Government hopes the changes can be implemented by next year.

Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui made the remarks after attending a Legislative Council meeting today and outlined the different stages of the reform process.

“The consultation has already started and we have already engaged a few of the key accounting organisations in Hong Kong to gauge their views on our proposal. On that front, basically it is a continuous process.

“The next stage for us is we need to present our proposal to the Legislative Council panel, and also to have the primary legislation scrutinised by LegCo, and potentially also for the subsidiary legislation to be scrutinised by LegCo next year.

“So it is really not a matter of a few months, but a matter of this year and next year.”

Mr Hui added that it is a global trend to establish independent regulation of the accountancy profession and has nothing to do with economic freedom.