The United Nations has been contributing towards the harmonization offinancial accounting and reporting standards for about three decades. In order toaddress accounting and financial reporting issues on a continuous and inclusive basis, member States established the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) in 1982. Since then, the Group has held 18 sessions.
The eighteenth session was held in Geneva on 10-12 September 2001. The main agenda item for the session was accounting by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The experts had previously identified a number of obstacles that SMEs face in maintaining accounting records and generating meaningful financial information. They established an ad hoc consultative group of 23 experts to formulate proposals for resolving these obstacles. Intensive consultations were conducted and a report was presented to the eighteenth session.
This volume of the Review of International Accounting and Reporting Issues contains the proceedings of the eighteenth session of ISAR. The deliberations on accounting by small and medium-sized enterprises are presented in Part 1. It also contains essays by leading experts on the implementation of international accounting standards and the current state of the international standard-setting process; The essays are presented in Part 2.
