Mauritius was witness to a full-day seminar on integrated reporting for members of the accounting profession, under the theme ‘Integrated Thinking: Create Value and Ensure Sustainable Business’.
The seminar was organised by the Mauritius Institute of Professional Accountant (MIPA) in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) on Friday, August 22, 2014 at the Maritim Hotel, Balaclava.
The aim of this seminar was to discuss the significance and importance of integrated thinking in order to create value and ensure sustainable business processes over both the short and long term.
In his opening speech, CIMA President Bernard Prefumo said that integrated thinking will help companies to create value by focusing on the external business environment with a more resilient business model.
Bheem Ramruttan, Chief Executive of MIPA, said that recently, the sixth largest accounting firm in the world has proposed to adopt integrated reporting as it is considered to be a major driver for emerging economies.
Guest speaker Muneer Hassan, a senior executive at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), emphasised that Integrated Reporting is a notion that is of growing importance in the accounting profession.
Additionally, he mentioned the six main resources that lead to value creation: financial, manufactured, human, intellectual, natural, and social.
Eddy Jolicoeur, Group Human Resources Manager at MCB, spoke on ‘Communicating with Impact’ and elaborated on the important tools of managerial communication for both employees and customers because in today’s technology-driven era, we tend to look for a different kind of networking, that is, mobile networking, rather than human networking.
BAI CEO Rishi Sookdawoor, spoke about ‘Business Leadership’ and said that leaders should adjust their leadership styles according to situations.
The panel discussion on ‘Regional integration: Creating Value’ saw participation from Jacques d’Unienville of Omnicane; Raju Jaddoo of MCCI; and Preetee Ramdin of EY.
Jacques d’Unienville dwelt on Omnicane’s next project under which the company is planning to use ashes of its thermal power plant as additive for cement, and mentioned that the Carbon Burn Out project should be ready by next year.
Also, Omnicane will export its sugar cane eco-industrial cluster model to Africa and the company is looking beyond the Africa region by investing in the Liverpool-based baking ingredients and sugar supplier, The Real Good Food Company (RGFC).
Raju Jaddoo, Secretary General at MCCI, spoke about regional integration and stated that Mauritius needs to find ways of developing its economy.
Preetee Jhamna Ramdin, partner, transaction advisory services at Ernst and Young, talked about the lessons learnt from clients and mentioned that companies in Africa need more skill development.
Furthermore, MIPA and PAFA will have a whole day workshop next year to impart information on technical standards.
Finally, the topic of Integrating Reporting will also form an important part of the discussions at the 3rd Africa Congress of Accountants (ACOA) to be held in Mauritius in May 2015.
– By Marie-Lorry Coret and Cecilia Samoisi
Image (Cecilia Samoisi): Guest speaker Muneer Hassan, a senior executive at the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), emphasised that Integrated Reporting is a notion that is gaining currency in the accounting profession.
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