CONVERGENCE-TOWARDS-IFRS-IN-MALAYSIA-ISSUES-CHALLENGES-AND-OPPORTUNITIES

International Journal of Business, Economics and Law, Vol. 1
ISSN 2289-1552

2012

CONVERGENCE TOWARDS IFRS IN MALAYSIA: ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES
Prof. Dr. Hajah Mustafa Mohd Hanefah
Faculty of Economic and Muamalat
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia
1 06-7988607
Jaspal Singh
Faculty of Business, Communication and Law
INTI International University, Malaysia. [e-mail], 06-7982000

ABSTRACT
Malaysia need to compete with its ASEAN neighbours and also other countries in securing FDI, and one of the ways to maintain competitiveness is by converging to IFRS. Like many other IFRS compliant countries in the world, Malaysia also faces problems in full adoption of IFRS at the initial stages. But, on the contrary, Malaysia is having a good platform for an easy adoption. The future challenges are also discussed as well as some salient issues pertaining to Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards
(MFRS) framework compared to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This paper also discusses the notion of full adoption of IFRS and opportunities as compared to convergence, not only merely a convergence.
Keywords: Convergence, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Malaysia, Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS),
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

INTRODUCTION
In the year 2008 the then Malaysian Accounting Standard Board’s (MASB) chairman, Dato ' Zainal Abidin Putih, announced that
Malaysia will be converging with International Accounting Standard Board (IASB)’s International Financial Reporting Standard
(IFRS). From that point onwards many initiatives were lined up by MASB and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) in order to educate, train and inform all the relevant stakeholders in tandem with fast approaching deadline to converge, which is for the earliest year-end financial reporting date, 31 December 2012. On 19 November 2011, MASB issued the third accounting framework to be

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