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June 2008 |
This update is the first in a series of new communiqués updating the membership of the West Asia & Africa region of AGN International about events that have occurred within their region and elsewhere in the AGN world which may be of interest to them.
It should be used as a forum for members to inform others as to their strengths, capabilities and changes in activities, including any new work gained.
It is only with the participation of the regional membership that this update will become both informative and useful.
This first edition provides some basic news and it is hoped that with the future involvement and contribution from members within the region, to expand the information contained in this update.
This is an update with headlines of news. Some news have extended information that can be found in the website (Regional News section) or also by clicking at the correspondent link. |
in this number.........
1. The Executive
2. Membership News
3. Website
4. Meetings
5. Recent travel
6. News from members
7. Other information |
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| 1. The Executive |
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Sunil Abeyratna of Abeyratna & Co (Sri Lanka) has kindly accepted the position of Acting Chair of the Region until the upcoming Regional meeting.
Click here to see the professional profile of Mr. Sunil Abeyratna
In addition, your regional Board of Directors (of AGN International – West Asia & Africa Ltd) currently comprises of :
| Sunil Abeyratna |
Jawad Rasrumani |
Sushas Deshpande |
| Hussain Al Qurtas |
Olusola Oyetayo |
Tawfiq Al-Swailem |
Nicholas Blake |
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Until such time as a Secretariat is set up within the region itself, your Board will be assisted in the administration of the region by the AGN International Executive Office in London.
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| 2. Membership News |
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The region welcomes a new member in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Click here to see details
Following the submission of an application form, the International Board reviewed this and unanimously approved a pre-admission peer review to be undertaken on a prospective member firm in Cairo, Egypt. The pre-admission peer review is being undertaken at the end of June by Jawad Rasrumani and Shams Al Baharna, of Al Mezan Bureau, our member firm in Bahrain.
Click here to see details
In respect of the United Arab Emirates, Nick Blake visited there at the beginning of April and met with four accounting firms that had expressed interest in joining AGN following the departure of the MAK organisation. After detailed discussions with these firms, one was invited to submit an application form, which has now been received and the International Board of Directors has approved a pre-admission peer review.
Click here to see details
In respect of professional services in Kuwait, the International Executive Office in London received an expression of interest from a consulting operation based in Kuwait City. During his travels in April, Nick Blake met with them and following this meeting, an introduction was made to the Managing Partner of our current member firm in Kuwait – Hussain Al-Qurtas of Middle East Auditing - and this has resulted in serious discussions between the two parties in setting up a joint consulting operation.
If you want your in-house publications and any news about your firm published in this website, please send details to the Regional Secretariat. |
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| 3. Website |
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A revamped regional website has now been constructed and is available to view.
This can be accessed at the following URL:
Click here to see details
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| 4. Meetings |
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 World Congress and the Pre-Congress Tour.
An invitation has been sent to all members of AGN INTERNATIONAL. This will be held in South America at the end of September this year.
See the invitation to the AGN World Congress
The 2008 Regional meeting is scheduled for Damascus, Syria in November. The Regional Secretariat will shortly be working very closely with both the Acting Chair and Hanadi Yassin, the Contact Partner of ASAS Business Consultancy, our member firm there. Suggestions for topics to be discussed (other than the future structure and operations of the region) should be sent to the Regional Secretariat.
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| 5. Recent travel |
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As part of a visit to the Middle East region, Nick Blake, the Chief Executive Officer of AGN International Ltd, visited with our current member firms in both Bahrain and Kuwait.
Photographs of the personnel in both offices are included not only in the new revised website.
Click here to see the photos |
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| 6. News from members |
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Attached you will see a write-up and photograph in respect of Shams Al Baharna’s visit to a recently held GCC Accounting conference.
No other representative from AGN was present and for the future, members firms in the GCC region should seriously consider sending a representative to this very important and prestigious conference.
Click here to see the article
You will have seen as part of this update photographs of a couple of member firms offices and their staff. It would be an excellent idea to profile a member firm (or two) in each update providing a write-up about that firm’s activities supported by photographs. This is something that will be on the agenda for the upcoming Regional meeting. |
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| 7. Other information |
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During Nick Blake’s visit to the region he met with Khalid Maniar and obtained details of the financial transactions of the region for calendar year 2007. The information provided needed to be re-engineered into an income and expenditure account and balance sheet and this has now been completed and will shortly be sent to you for your information. You will see from the balance sheet that there is slightly in excess of some US$11,000 available for regional activities. It should be noted that a number of firms have not yet paid their 2008 regional subscriptions and these will be contacted to do so in the coming months. Obviously as part of the discussions at the Regional meeting, the creation of a budget for 2009 activities will be on the agenda.
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We hope that this update has provided you with some interesting and useful information. Please pass any comments you may have on the structure and contents of this update, which you may like to see changed for future editions, to the Regional Secretariat. |
Visit the website: http://www.agn-waa.org
