Last Friday, I had the privilege of welcoming the Chinese Vice-Minister of Finance, Dr Wang Jun to Chartered Accountants Hall. He was here to be presented with Honorary Membership of the ICAEW in recognition of the outstanding leadership he has provided in reforming the Chinese Accountancy profession and the contribution he has made to the finance and business world.

As part of his visit, Minister Wang participated in a Q&A session with senior representatives from some of our member firms. He was also able to meet the Chinese students currently in London as part of the joint programme we run with the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

We were able to hear directly from him about the progress that has been made in China on convergence of Chinese standards with international standards for accounting and auditing. He also talked about his vision and how he sees the Chinese profession developing over the coming years.  To give you some perspective of the scale of his vision and the numbers involved, Minister Wang talked about developing 200 medium-sized firms to service the Chinese market and 10 large firms that would have the skills and capabilities to support multi-national Chinese companies within the next five years. He also spoke about the Ministry of Finance’s 10-year plan for creating 1,000 leading accounting talents in China.

That it will be one of our honorary members driving this forward is recognition indeed of the standing in which the ICAEW is held in China as one of the world’s leading professional accountancy bodies.