Dear Member/Member Practice/Student,

In my letter yesterday, I informed members of a meeting between the Hong Kong Institute of CPAs and ACCA.

The President, Vice Presidents and executives of the Hong Kong Institute of CPAs met with representatives from ACCA today and the talks ended cordially in an agreed statement.

This face-to-face communication has been beneficial and as a consequence of this meeting, the Hong Kong Institute of CPAs now knows more about what ACCA wants from the Institute and ACCA's point of view. Both sides agreed to consider any firm proposals that would benefit the accounting profession in Hong Kong .

We held an informal media briefing after the talks here at the Institute so that we could explain our point of view directly to reporters and try to avoid some of the confusion caused by other recent press coverage. We have attached the press release <http://www.hkicpa.org.hk/whatsnew/mra.php> from the briefing and the post-meeting joint statement issued by the Institute. <http://www.hkicpa.org.hk/whatsnew/joint_press_stat.php> The ACCA held its own briefing for reporters two hours later.

We hope our efforts to talk to the media result in a more accurate public portrait of the Institute and its goals, and tomorrow's coverage is no exception.

On another note, my thanks to all our members who responded to my letter of 20 September. As always, your thoughts and opinions are important to the Institute as we seek to represent your interests. I shall try to reply to you individually but due to the number, it will probably take a few days.

We plan to organise a members' gathering to provide an opportunity for members who wish to raise any questions with us on this or other issues and we shall let you have details soon.