A senior Chinese accountant has been appointed as a full-time member of an organization that sets global accounting rules, a sign of
Zhang Weiguo, chief accountant at the CSRC, will join the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), a powerful London-based 14-member group, as its first Chinese member.
Zhang, who is also director of the department of international affairs at the CSRC, will leave his current job and assume the new post on July 1 next year.
Zhang's appointment, which was made on Monday by IASB trustees, shows the country's influence in setting international accounting standards is growing, the CSRC said in a statement yesterday.
Zhang is the second IASB member from Asia, and underscores IASB and other international bodies' nods to
The appointment comes at a time when the country is stepping up its efforts to bring its national accounting standards in line with international ones.
The Ministry of Finance announced in February it has moved to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which are used by nearly 100 countries. The new rules will apply to about 1,300 listed companies beginning January 1, 2007.
"Zhang has been actively involved in accounting standard setting and implementation issues, auditor oversight, and cross-border regulatory cooperation issues at the CSRC and with his work with the International Organization of Securities Commissions," said
the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation, the oversight body of IASB.
"Zhang will bring an important perspective to the IASB," it added. "In his position at the CSRC, he has been a strong advocate of the need for high quality international financial reporting standards and has witnessed practical implementation issues from the perspective of a market regulator in the world's largest emerging economy."
Before joining the CSRC, Zhang was head of the department of accounting at
