The First “Belt and Road” National Accounting Standards Cooperation Forum (hereinafter referred to as the “Cooperation Forum”) was held in Xiamen, China, from 7 to 8 November 2019. The Cooperation Forum was hosted by the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China and co-organized by the Xiamen National Accounting Institute and the Research Center for the Belt & Road Financial and Economic Development. The Cooperation Forum was attended by delegates from accounting standards-setting bodies of 8 participating countries of The Initiative on Promoting Accounting Standards Cooperation among Participating Countries of the Belt and Road Initiative, including Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, National Accounting Council of Cambodia, Mongolian Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Accounting Standards Board of Nepal, External Reporting Board of New Zealand, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants.

The delegates shared experience and future plans on accounting standards setting in their countries as well as discussed main challenges in this area. The delegates expressed their confidence that, within the framework of the deepening economic globalization, accounting standards play an increasingly significant role in the international economic and trade exchanges and capital flows. In particular, as the IFRS Standards are widely adopted or converged with by jurisdictions around the world, the function of accounting as an international business language becomes even more significant. The delegates understand the necessity to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in accounting standards and to jointly address such issues as standards implementation, capacity building and accounting supervision so as to create a good accounting environment for the international economic and trade exchanges and capital flows.

The delegates had a discussion upon how to further run the Cooperation Forum. The delegates agreed that the Cooperation Forum should focus on technical information exchanges, policy promotion, capacity building and cooperative research, as well as establishment of an equal, open and pragmatic communication platform; the Cooperation Forum will be held regularly; the Research Center for the Belt & Road Financial and Economic Development located in Xiamen, China, should be responsible for the liaison matters of the Cooperation Forum.