Seminars on Financial Reporting
Due to the implementation of the fair value hierarchy in financial statement reports, there exist some disclosure issues between GP surveyors and auditors regarding financial report valuations. To help both professions move forward, I was invited by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Hong Kong to attend and discuss “The Relationship between Valuers and Auditors in preparing/Assessing Valuations for Financial Statement Purposes” during the 2014 Deloitte China National Real Estate Industry Practice Annual Seminar on 27 November 2014. Over 80 people attended. I was also invited by BDO Limited Hong Kong to participate in a workshop known as “Investment Property Valuation” in the SLC on 9 December 2014. Over 150 BDO Limited staff attended the workshop.
Promotion of IP Valuation
For the past two years, I have worked hard to promote our GP capabilities in IP (intellectual property) valuation. With the kind assistance of the Hon Sr Tony Tse, Sr Edward Au, and members of the HKIS Executive Committee (ExeCom), I successfully obtained, after negotiations, an agreement from the Trade Development Council to provide a free exhibition booth to HKIS members who provide IP valuations in Hong Kong to promote their businesses at the BIP Asia Forum from 4-5 December 2014.
To facilitate this first-ever promotional opportunity to GPD members and their firms, I invited those firms that provided IP valuations to the public and responded to my e-mail of 29 May 2014 and the subsequent follow-up calls from the HKIS Secretariat to attend a briefing session on 2 December 2014 at HKIS headquarters. Representatives from seven firms attended the session, during which I briefed them on the background and development of this first-ever opportunity. After the session, each firm was invited to select its preferred date and time slot to promote its business, and we finally allocated eight two-hour time slots to the seven firms to use the HKIS booth. Over 70 inquiries were received during the promotional period.
Reminder of the Application to be listed on the HKIS’s List of Firms Providing Professional Consultancy Services in General Practice Surveying
From time to time, the GPD Council receives applications from GP members to list their firms on the HKIS’s List of Firms Providing Professional Consultancy Services in General Practice Surveying. Firms that wish to be listed have to confirm that they fulfill the following requirements:
- Be a firm registered in Hong Kong.
- Be a firm that provides the external professional consultancy services of a general practice surveyor.
- Have at least one corporate member of the HKIS’s GPD working full time in a senior position.
The GPD Council considers that a description of “Corp” in the Nature of Business column of a valid Business Registration does not satisfy the requirement of “a firm that provides the external professional consultancy services of a general practice surveyor” unless such services are expressly stated in the provided firm’s Articles of Association and Memorandum.
Reciprocity arrangement
During the recent GPD Council meeting, members agreed in principle to proceed further discussion with the China Appraisal Society about possible reciprocity arrangement. A discussion forum will be organised simultaneously in the coming months to collect members’ views on such arrangement.
GPD Representatives in the various HKIS Boards/Committees/Working Groups
Sr Joseph HO, KK CHIU, and CK LAU were nominated as GPD representatives to the 2014-2015 HKIS General Council. Most of the other nominations were conducted for HKIS Boards/Committees/Working Groups posts. The list of nominated representatives is as follows:
GPD APC Part II Results
The GPD APC Part II Assessment was held from 13 to 23 December 2014. A total of 53 probationers sat for the Part II Assessment and 33 passed the Part II Interview. The passing rate was about 62%. Among these 53 candidates, 37 were
first attempts. The results are as follows:
Congratulations to those probationers who successfully passed the Part II Interview. The HKIS welcomes them to join as Professional Members. For those who were referred, they are encouraged to continue up keeping themselves as opportunities lie ahead for them.
Prior to the Part II Assessment, the GPD Education Committee organised a briefing session for the Part II Assessors on 3 December 2014 to inform them about the new APC and the points to note, followed by a Q&A and experience-sharing session. About 50 members attended this gathering. I take this opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to the GPD Education Committee convened by Sr Edward AU, Louie CHAN, Joseph HO, Lawrence Poon, and TC Wong, as well as to all the APC assessors who contributed substantial efforts to assist in the GPD APC this year.
