The meeting was hosted by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and was attended by 21 participating standard setting bodies, which were from Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Dubai, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  Representatives of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation also attended.

Topics discussed included:

• Administrative matters. The group confirmed Kevin Stevenson (Chairman of the AASB) as Chair of the AOSSG and elected of the Chair of the Hong Kong Institute of CPAs (HKICPA) Financial Reporting Standards Committee, Clement Chan, as the Vice Chair of the AOSSG. The meeting agreed to extend the terms of the AOSSG Chair and AOSSG Vice-Chair from one year to two years to facilitate the long-term efficiency and effectiveness of the Group
• IAS 41 Agriculture. The group members discussed a working group proposal, recently submitted to the IASB, to make a limited revision to IAS 41, specifically on bearer biological assets. The IASB members present tentatively expressed their support for considering the limited revision. The working group is also expected to begin considering a long-term research project that would involve performing a comprehensive review of IAS 41
• Islamic finance. Members considered a working group presentation on the result of a recent survey on Islamic finance and noted some of the salient features of Islamic finance that may need to be considered when the IFRSs are being developed. In this regard, the working group suggested an Islamic Finance Advisory Group be established to provide input to the IASB and assist in the development of IFRSs
• Emissions trading schemes. The group acknowledged the need for a global accounting standard on the emissions trading schemes (ETS) and urged the IASB to accelerate its ETS project
• Other technical matters. The group discussed many IASB projects such as the agenda consultation, revenue recognition, leases, investment entities and financial instruments, and discussed other technical matters related to foreign currency translation and present valuing future cash flows.

Click for Communiqué from the meeting (link to AOSSG website). An informal meeting of the AOSSG is planned for March 2012 in Kuala Lumpur.