In this connection, I welcome the HKSA's recent decision to appoint three non-accountants to the Disciplinary Panel for subsequent appointment to any Disciplinary Committees which may be convened to deal with breaches of professional standards. But, I have to stress that this must be only the start. If self-regulation is to mean anything, the accountancy profession must accept that there has to be a far greater degree of disclosure and transparency in the way in which the profession regulates its affairs. One way of achieving this, is through the increasing appointment of suitably qualified lay persons to committees handling areas of particular public interest and concern in the accountancy profession such as discipline, investigations and ethics. Increased lay participation is the direction in which accountancy bodies in other developed jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom are moving, and it is the direction in which Hong Kong must move if self-regulation by the accountancy profession is to continue to have credibility.
Transparency is only one facet of the development of the accountancy profession.
How to enhance and modernize the well established self-regulatory system and to live up to the expectation of the community in this rapidly changing era will remain the challenge for the accountancy profession in the years ahead. There will continue to be more and more business opportunities but, at the same time, the profession must also readily accept a greater degree of public scrutiny, and, no pun intended, accountability. I am confident that it will further strengthen the links between accountancy bodies in the region in general and Hong Kong and Australia in particular. In this age of globalization, no accountancy body can afford to be an island unto itself and there is much that we can and must learn from each other.