Professional Accountancy

Hong Kong had 13 695 registered professional accountants at the end of
1997. Of these, 2 409 were certified public accountants (CPAs) or public
accountants (PAs) who are in public practice and entitled to perform
statutory audits. There were 920 CPA firms and 31 corporate practices in
Hong Kong at the end of the year.

The Hong Kong Society of Accountants is a self-regulatory body
established under the Professional Accountants Ordinance with a wide
range of responsibilities for registering professional accountants,
maintaining accounting, auditing and ethical standards for the profession
and conducting professional accountants' examinations.

The Hong Kong Society of Accountants is developing its own independent
professional examinations and aims to hold its first examination in 1999 to
establish its own benchmarks for competency standards for professional
accountants. The existing Joint Examination Scheme held by the Hong
Kong Society of Accountants and the Association of Chartered Certified
Accountants (UK) will continue until 2002.

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