НАЗАД

IAB at forefront of Russia retraining

Russia will need to retrain 3.5m book­keepers and auditors so that it can cope with introduction of international accounting standards, Dr Igor Zhuravlev of the Russian Academy of Administration told the recent Annual All Russia Meeting of Book-keepers and Auditors.

Held in the Kremlin, the conference was attended by nearly 3,000 chief accountants and financial directors from all parts of Russia.

The change to international standards was necessary so that Russia could attract overseas investors and play a full part in the world economy, said Dr Zhuravlev, who is director of the lAB's and IFA's representative headquarters in Russia. The transition would not be easy, he said. And the most pressing problem was to train accountants and book-keepers able to implement the change. In this the IAB and IFA had an important part to play since its 'mission in Russia is to provide active support to finance and accountancy education: to secure a high quality training for qualified specialists, who will be able not only to increase their companies' competitiveness in the Russian and foreign markets, but also to elevate Russia's prestige in the international arena'.

The IAB had been offering its book­keeping qualification in Russia since 1998, Dr Zhuravlev reminded his audience. Over 2,000 Russians had so far passed its exams.The IAB training centre network now encompassed Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Perm, Stavropol, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa and other cities of Russia and CIS, he said.

IAB Chief Executive Malcolm Dean said he was delighted that the IAB had again been invited to attend and make a presentation at the annual meeting, a mark of its success so far in Russia .