The 1st FASS Forum Vietnam 2009

The Asian Day also known as the 1st FASS Forum Vietnam held on 27 November 2009 in Hanoi was a success. The event was hosted by the newest IAFEI member the Vietnam Chief Finance Officers Club (VCFO) jointly with the Japan Association of Chief Finance Officers (JACFO). There were approximately 100 registered participants with 14 foreign delegates representing China, Chinese Taiwan, Japan, Philippines and even IAFEI-Europe.

Mr. Helmut Schnabel, Executive Director of IAFEI, delivered a short message during the opening ceremonies. Mr. Victor Lim, IAFEI Vice Chairman also graced the occasion.

The program for the Asian Day with the theme “Weathering the Financial Crisis: the Asian CFO Perspective” featured seasoned speakers from the Asian region.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bach, Director of Vietnam CFO Club, Mr. Hiroshi Yaguchi, Founder and Executive Director of Japan Association of CFOs, and Dr. Han Manh Tien, President of Vietnam Association of Corporate Directors, led the Opening Ceremonies.

Dr. Nhuyen Trong Hieu, Deputy Director General of Agency for Enterprise Development of Ministry of Planning and Investment delivered the Welcome Address

Dr. Conchita L. Manabat, President, Development Center for Finance, Philippines; Member, Advisory Council of IAFEI, gave the Keynote Speech entitled “Evolving Role of the Asian CFO amidst the Global Crisis” . She spoke on the global landscape, the Asian scenario, the CFO’s multi-faceted role and the consequential challenges confronting the CFO.

Mr. Tetsuya Kawakami, Senior Corporate Advisor of Panasonic Corporation, Principal of Panasonic Institute of Finance and Director of JACFO talked on “Corporate Restructuring at Panasonic and the Role of the CFO”. He shared his experience as the CFO of Panasonic Corporation, where he led the corporate restructuring initiative in 2001, the year in which Panasonic, once recognized as one of the few truly outstanding companies, faced the most serious financial difficulties in its history. He introduced the delegates to Panasonic’s management philosophy that supported the restructuring initiative and its unique systems for financial management and human resource development.

Mr. Duong Hai, Partner, Chief Finance Officer of Vietnam Partners LLC; Vice Director of Vietnam CFO Club presented “Challenges Facing Today’s CFO/Rethinking the Role of Finance across the Enterprise in Today’s Fast Changing Economy” . He highlighted the changing roles of finance management and current approaches taken to improve the financial performance of an organization. He gave an analysis of how the role of CFO is changing with emphasis on People around CFO in day to day works. He gave suggestions to enable finance to become strategic business partner in an organization. While CFO’s job requires extensive dealing with people, maintaining healthy relationship with investors is key to the success of a CFO as well as an organization. Lastly, Ethics was discussed as the most important aspect of a CFO.

Global Accreditation Program

A very important achievement during the Asian Day was the first solid action collectively taken by IAFEI member institutes towards the implementation of the long-planned global accreditation program. Another half day was devoted to consultations among the Asian institutes present on how to get the plan off the ground with specific focus on the Asian region for a start. Thus, each delegation presented their respective experience on accreditation/qualification system. Those who do not have any system in place did not pose any objection to the initiative.

The consensus among the participants to the consultation was to establish a minimum baseline system of global application. It was reported that the English translation of the Japanese system is available sometime during the first quarter of 2010. The Japanese government which spent no less than US$500,000 for consultants to come up with an appropriate qualification system for accounting and finance is more than willing to share the system with the rest of the world. It is, in fact, covering the cost to translate the accreditation documents on the System into English. Once the English version is available, the same will be shared among the member institutes in the region as a reference for establishing the minimum baseline system. IAFEI Area President for Asia Hisoshi Yaguchi will keep all posted on developments.

The Asian member institutes see the merit of pursuing the accreditation initiative. Thus, a Task Force will soon be formed where jurisdictions will be represented with the end in view of formulating a minimum or baseline qualification/accreditation system against which each jurisdiction may cross-reference their respective qualification/accreditation system.