A number of key matters discussed at the recent Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee meeting held in Hong Kong from 22-24 April 2009, are of particular interest to the Australian professional accounting bodies.  
 
International Good Practice Guidance (IGPG) 
The recently issued IGPG on evaluating and improving governance in organisations addresses risks and organisational accountability. Cost of capital (which is also one of the upcoming topics in the Institute’s global economic downturn factsheet series will be the subject of a future IGPG to be issued by the committee. The committee also approved the release of the final version of the costing IGPG, which was issued as an exposure draft in 2008. The committee considered all these topics to remain very relevant and important to professional accountants in business in the current economic environment.  
 
Public sector performance measurement 
The paper on developments in performance measurement structures in public sector entities has been released by the committee. As part of its mission to serve all professional accountants in business, including those working in the public sector, the committee has conducted a survey to obtain information about the financial and non-financial performance measurement and reporting processes in various public sector entities around the world. 
 
Sustainability framework 
The sustainability framework developed by IFAC has seen significant success and is one of the most visited pages on IFACs website. The framework is a web based tool that highlights the issues organisations must address to make sustainability an integral part of their business model. The framework is available at this dedicated website 
 
Business reporting: financial reporting supply chain 
The third phase of this IFAC Board project will include a series of interviews with investors, preparers, auditors, standard setters and regulators from around the world, to provide practical solutions for making business reporting more useful and for further improving the communication (or business performance) between a business and its stakeholders, this follows the survey of member bodies released in early 2009. More. 
 
 
Relevant links:

• IFAC PAIB: website
• The Institute: global economic downturn factsheet series
• IFAC: financial reporting supply chain
• IFAC: sustainability framework