Auditor General Ngo Van Tuan meets with the CEO of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

Attending the meeting were Nguyen Ba Dung, Director General of the International Cooperation Department; Do Van Tao, Director General of the Human Resources Department; Le Tung Lam, Director General  of the Administrativ Department; Nguyen Luong Thuyet, Director General of the Audit Policy and Quality Control Department; Tran Khanh Hoa, Director General of the Specialized Audit Department No. III; Nguyen Van Giap, Director General of the Specialized Audit Department No. V; Tran Hai Dong, Director General of the Regional Audit Office No. XI; and Nguyen Duc Tin, Director General of the Regional Audit Office No. XIII.

Also participating in welcoming the SAV delegation were Abdul Goffar, Director of ACCA UK; Glenn Collins, Head of Technical Cooperation and Strategy at ACCA UK; Jessica Bingham, Head of Policy and Information for the UK, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa; Joe Fitzsimons, Senior Policy and Information Officer; along with other ACCA colleagues.

During the reception, Ms. Helen Brand, the global CEO of ACCA, expressed her pleasure in welcoming Auditor General Ngo Van Tuan and the SAV delegation. She began her speech by sharing her sympathy for the losses and damages caused by Typhoon No. 3 (Yagi), floods, and landslides in the northern provinces of Viet Nam recently. Ms. Brand expressed her belief that the people of Viet Nam, with their resilience, creativity, and aspirations to rise, would quickly overcome the aftermath of the natural disaster and soon stabilize their lives, just as they had overcome the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Accordingly, Brand appreciated Tuan's visit to ACCA, highlighting its importance in promoting the cooperation between the SAV and ACCA, making it increasingly effective and impactful. This visit presented an opportunity for both sides to discuss expanding collaboration in the financial sector for economic growth and national prosperity in Viet Nam.

The global CEO of ACCA once again congratulated Auditor General Ngo Van Tuan on being honored by the Party and State leaders with the First-Class Labor Medal. This recognition acknowledges and commends the excellent achievements in and significant contributions of the SAV over three decades to fostering a transparent and sustainable national financial system.

Tuan congratulated ACCA on its rapid development, its position as the world's largest professional organization, and appreciated ACCA's role in Viet Nam. He emphasized that ACCA is a trusted partner of the SAV, with many effective collaborative activities since the two sides signed a cooperation agreement in 2009.

Briefing an overview of the functions, tasks, and main development pillars of the SAV in its Strategy for Development by 2030, Tuan highlighted the desire to collaborate with ACCA on developing high-quality human resources, one of the SAV's crucial development pillars. He expressed hope that ACCA would continue to support the SAV in training and sharing experiences, especially in international and environmental auditing. He proudly shared that the SAV had been elected as a member of the ASOSAI Audit Committee for the 2024-2027 term and expressed the wish that ACCA assists its audits of the international financial funds to effectively fulfill this new role.

In agreement with Tuan’s views, Helen Brand stated that ACCA looks forward to closer cooperation between the two sides. She praised the collaborative proposals from the SAV and committed to working closely with the SAV in the future to work on a suitable assistance programs for both parties to elevate the relationship to new heights.

After the courtesy meeting, the SAV delegation and ACCA held a seminar to exchange experience in environmental auditing and sustainable development. With the theme "The accounting profession for a better world," the ACCA global representative shared that creating and utilizing information related to sustainability would help all organizations, advisors, and stakeholders better identify and manage risks. The ACCA introduced an eight-stage process for generating sustainability-related information, including: Stage 1: Delegating responsibility for sustainability reporting; Stage 2: Establishing the reporting context; Stage 3: Identifying information related to sustainable factors that need to be reported; Stage 4: Determining data requirements; Stage 5: Collecting data; Stage 6: Reporting based on collected data; Stage 7: Implementation entities including planning, technology, and human resources; Stage 8: Verification and continuous improvement.

Additionally, the ACCA representative emphasized that effective collaboration between senior managers, technology experts, human resources, talent development agencies, and professional accountants is crucial. Specifically, professional accountants must practice ethics in creating and utilizing sustainable information.

During the seminar, the ACCA representative made commitments to develop creativity capacities and use sustainability- related information. The ACCA stated it would continue to strive through policy research, education, and professionalism on topics such as improved decision-making, regulatory compliance, risk management, and strategic planning while identifying ethical responsibilities and aligning with global sustainability goals.

With the presentation "Applying common practices in developing Environmental Audit Guidelines," Pham Thanh Ngoc, Deputy Director General of the Specialized Audit Department No. III, representing the SAV, shared insights on the process of conducting environmental audits for sustainable development and the challenges the SAV faces, particularly in developing strategic audit plans, conducting environmental audits in performance audit type, building databases and audit topic banks, and sharing experiences, methods, and guidelines for auditing some environmental topics.

The Q&A session among representatives from the SAV and ACCA was conducted in a scientific and open spirit of sharing, contributing to the success of the seminar, thereby helping both sides update insights to support each other effectively and sustainably in integrating into the global financial market.