Following the theme of his recent speeches made in Japan and China earlier this month, Mr Prada provided a case for global accounting standards and uses the actions taken in Korea to serve as “an exemplary role model in the region.” 

Mr Prada states that businesses in Korea benefit from full adoption of IFRS because they can report a set of financial statements that are familiar with investors around the world. According to a recent KASB review of the consequences of the move to IFRS, the introduction of IFRS has “led to an improvement in the quality of earnings, as well as improving comparability between different Korean companies as well as their international peers.” Mr Prada noted that other jurisdictions have experienced similar conclusions. He also states that the continued economic and financial globalisation has caused the G20, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and IOSCO to support the work of the IFRS Foundation (IFRSF) and the IASB.

In addition, Mr Prada commented on progress made in the development of high quality, global accounting standards, which included IFRSF study on the use of IFRS around the world and the requirement of 114 out of 138 countries to require the use of IFRS for all or most public companies. Significant progress has been made in jurisdictions that have not yet required the use of IFRS, such as China, India, Japan and United States.

Lastly, he reflected on the “evolution” of the IFRSF and IASB and how the upcoming public consultation on the structure and effectiveness of the organisation will provide stakeholders with an opportunity to voice their comments.

The full text of Mr Prada's speech is avail­able on the IASB's website. The KASB has published a press release on the seminar on its website.