Dubai, Oct 6th, 2011 (WAM) -- Dubai SME, the agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED), Government of Dubai, has recently co-organised with the Arab Society of Certified Accountants (ASCA) and the UK based IFRS Foundation a 3-day Train the Trainer workshop on the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for Small and Medium Entities (SMEs).

Professionals in the Accounting and Auditing Trade, financial analysts in banks & government agencies, financial consultants as well finance executives of selective SMEs participated in the workshop which was inaugurated by Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, ASCA's Chairman.

Around 110 trainees from various countries in the region including Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Oman, and the UAE attended the workshop. The workshop was facilitated by Paul Pacter (IASB member and Chairman of the IASBs SME Implementation Group) and Michael Wells (Director of the IFRS Foundations Education Initiative).

The Workshop was aimed at developing the capacity of regional trainers to provide subsequent training on the IFRS for SMEs in their own jurisdiction in addition to opening a door of opportunities for other stakeholders including standard setters and regulators to promote high quality implementation of the IFRS for SMEs.

Sami Dhaen Al Qamzi, Director General, Department of Economic Development Dubai, remarked "this is a significant milestone in Dubais SME Development agenda. Adopting a standard way of reporting financial accounts is crucial if our companies want to achieve new growth in global markets, as well as to raise external capital. The Dubai government supports such initiative for SMEs to voluntarily adopt such standards for their own good. I commend Dubai SME for initiating such a strategic initiative to create greater awareness of the importance of adopting IFRS amongst the SME community so as to enable their future development".

Abdul Baset Al Janahi, Chief Executive Office of Dubai SME, expressed "I am confident that over time, more growing SMEs will embrace IFRS to enable them to be more bankable and investable. The train-the-trainer programme aims to train the accounting, auditing, banking, finance and other related professionals on how to train SMEs on the IFRS for SMEs so as to increase the adoption rate amongst Dubais SMEs. All stakeholders will certainly benefit from this initiative the end users who are the SMEs and banking, finance and accounting industry.

Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of ASCA said in his opening speech "This event creates endless opportunities for all to benefit and provides an umbrella for interaction among trainers to share their experience, tackle common issues related to IFRS for SMEs. We thank Dubai for hosting such a great event."Michael Wells, Director of the IFRS Foundations education initiative thanked Dubai SME for most efficiently hosting this important regional training workshop and the ASCA for translating the IFRS Foundation IFRS for SMEs training material into the Arabic-language. He said I believe that this workshop is an important catalyst for improving SMEs access to capital in Dubai and across the region. Better access to capital supports greater growth in the SME sector and should unlock benefits for the whole economy.

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2011.