Full convergence with IFRSs in Singapore by 2012

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31 May 2009

The Singapore Accounting Standards Council has decided to fully converge Singapore Financial Reporting Standards with IFRSs by 2012. The fully-converged standards would apply to all Singapore-incorporated companies listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

This was announced in an address by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore Minister for Finance, at an IFRS conference in Singapore on 27 May 2009. Click to Download Mr Shanmugaratnam's Address (PDF 85k). Here is an excerpt:

Singapore's Convergence Roadmap

As an international business and financial centre, Singapore has a strong stake and interest in the development of IFRS as the global accounting standard. We have long been an advocate for a single global accounting standard, and since 2002, Singapore has embarked on a strategy of closely modeling our Singapore Financial Reporting Standards or SFRS after the IFRS – deviating from IFRS only in very specific and exceptional instances where there are strong reasons backed by economic and business substance arguments.

Singapore companies have generally been 'IFRS-ready' and 'IFRS-compliant' in a substantive manner for a number of years now. With our experience implementing IFRS, Singapore is thus well placed to play an active role in the development of IFRS as the global accounting standard. The Singapore Accounting Standards Council has therefore decided to take a key step forward in its strategic directions, to work towards the full convergence of the SFRS with the IFRS for Singapore incorporated companies listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange by 2012.

 

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