The global convergence in the accountancy profession

Abstract

The journey to have a common set of international accounting standards started long ago which give it a professional shape and essence. For this goal, accounting regulation all over the world feel the necessity to shorten the gap among different streams of accounting practices through harmonization. There have been some urgent questions: How to increase the confidence of international investors when using financial statements of companies in different capital markets? How to minimize the costs and timing of financial reporting prepared in accordance with different GAAP? How to consolidate financial statements of subsidaries in other countries according to the standards of parent companies? Therefore, some countries have not only reformed their accounting system to harmonize with international standards, but have also set a goal of convergence with international accounting standards. In fact, most countries have actively integrating to international standards but each nation has different steps and strategy of integration. The paper focuses firstly on the diversity of accounting in the world, then the requirements for harmony as well as the concerted efforts to converge accounting in the world as well as in Vietnam will be analyzed.