A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration, School of Management

Research report (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2004

Accounting harmonization is becoming a facing issue for Cambodian with the external encouragement from ASEAN, WTO and AF A and along with the trend of internal users, that is the private companies, which are so far adopting the international standards. The adoption of CAS will facilitate the development of equity markets and promotes economic growth. In addition, it is expected to help Cambodia to attract foreign investment through the confidence over the accounting system. In Cambodia, there is a direct link between accounting requirements and the tax law. This is may be the main encouragement for the registered companies to use the CAS. If enterprises want to use their financial statements to attract investors, particularly foreign investors, they must remove the effects of any distortions caused by the tax rules. For example an industrial enterprise should recognize impairment losses on its plant and equipment irrespective of the fact that the tax authorities will not allow the expense as a deduction in determining taxable profits. In 16 October 2004, the National Assembly of Cambodia approved a regulation requiring all registered companies within the countries to use the Cambodian Accounting Standards, which is based on International Accounting Standards for financial report for periods starting on or after January 01, 2005. By means of fourteen interviews with regulators, auditors and private company's financial and accounting managers, there is a positive opinion for the adoption of Cambodian Accounting Standards. All the interviewees accept the concept of common and standardized accounting systems and believe the qualities of financial reporting will be improved to be more transparent, reliable and realistic. But there are some doubts if the government regulations are effective enough to put all the companies to use the CAS after January 01, 2005 and to get audited under the Cambodian Standard of Auditing, and if the National Bank of Cambodia agrees to change to the new system to have harmonization of accounting systems in the country. Although the private companies are familiar with the IAS and expect that they will be able to apply the CAS correctly and understandably, not all interviewees know sufficient about CAS to get the fully compliance. Education and training is considered to be important issue at the moment to bring all the private companies to get fully understand the concept of CAS and the method of application, the largest transition issue, with audit firms expected to play a key role in providing the consulting idea. There is a great expectation for the success of implementing the CAS. With additional training and education, the familiarity with IAS of the private companies, the intention to use the CAS, will be important for Cambodian to get the standard adopted by all registered companies and all financial institutions since they are willing and ready to change to CAS as well due to the reason that the their accountants are educated under the international standard. However, they are under the control of the NBC, unless NBC is changing to use CAS, then they can be able to change to CAS too.