'Hopeful' Hillary Clinton set for Burma visit

BBC News, 30 November 2011

Burma: Battle for Democracy 

• Burma law to allow labour unions
• Burma frees political prisoners
• Burma's Zargana is still laughing
• Why Burma has halted its mega-dam

Hillary Clinton says she wants to see Burma's
reforms for herself

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to arrive in Burma later, in the first trip by such a senior American diplomat in 50 years.

Mrs Clinton told reporters she was "quite hopeful" that reforms undertaken by the government could lead to a broader "movement for change".

She is due to meet Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein on her two-day visit.

No US politician of her seniority has visited since an army takeover in 1962.

Burma has been largely isolated since then, under an autocratic and unpredictable military regime.

The military oversaw elections last year that transferred power to a military-backed nominally-civilian government.

But the new government unde Thein Sein - a former general - has undertaken some steps towards reform.

'Flickers of progress'

Mrs Clinton told reporters in South Korea that she wanted to see for herself how committed the government was to change.

REFORM IN BURMA 

• 7 Nov 2010: First polls in 20 years
• 13 Nov: Aung San Suu Kyi freed from house arrest
• 30 Mar 2011: Transfer of power to new government complete
• 14 Aug: Aung San Suu Kyi allowed to leave Rangoon on political visit
• 19 Aug: Aung San Suu Kyi meets Burmese President Thein Sein
• 6 Oct: Human rights commission established
• 12 Oct: More than 200 political prisoners freed
• 13 Oct: New labour laws allowing unions passed
• 17 Nov: Burma granted Asean chair in 2014
• 18 Nov: NLD says it is rejoining political process

Has power transfer changed Burma?

"We and many other nations are quite hopeful that these flickers of progress... will be ignited into a movement for change that will benefit the people of the country," she said.

The government has made efforts to reform election laws and rules banning protests. It has also released some political prisoners.

The changes have been rewarded by regional group Asean, which has agreed to allow Burma to take the chairmanship of the bloc in 2014.

And Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has re-registered as a political party.

The NLD had operated outside the political system for two decades, and Ms Suu Kyi spent much of that time in detention.

It boycotted the polls last year because of laws that prevented Ms Suu Kyi and other senior pro-democracy leaders from running.

These laws have now been changed and the party says it will field candidates in an upcoming by-election for seats in parliament left empty by the appointment of ministers.

However, critics that the country still holds hundreds more political prisoners, and that fierce fighting is continuing between government troops and ethnic insurgents in several states.

Clinton's meeting with Thein Sein is a 'milestone'

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Chinese city poised to introduce country's first Good Samaritan rules

Officials in Shenzhen have published a draft of new rules designed to encourage people to come to each other's aid

guardian.co.uk, Tania Branigan in Beijing, Wednesday 30 November 2011

The mother of two-year-old Yueyue shortly after her daughter was finally
helped in Foshan. Photograph: China Foto Press / Barcroft Media

A major Chinese city wants the country's first "Good Samaritan" rules to encourage residents to help each other, after the death of a two-year-old girl whose plight was ignored by passers by horrified the nation.

Millions watched the shocking surveillance footage showing Yueyue being knocked down by a van, ignored by a stream of passers by and run over by a second vehicle before a woman finally came to her aid. The little girl from Foshan, Guangdong province, died days later in hospital.

Officials in nearby Shenzhen have now published a draft of new rules designed to encourage people to come to each other's aid, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

It follows widespread calls for a national law in the wake of Yueyue's death, with experts warning that many people were too frightened to help each other thanks to a spate of cases where people sued their rescuers, alleging they had caused the injuries in the first place. In some cases they may have been genuinely mistaken, but in others the claims seem to have been blatant extortion.

According to a report from the Guangzhou Daily, the new rules free Good Samaritans from legal responsibility for the condition of the person they help, except in the case of gross negligence.

"This can be seen as the core of the regulation. Its goal is to free citizens who do good things from worries," said by Zhang Jian, a lawyer at the Shenzhen Dacheng Law Firm.

Those who falsely accuse helpers of causing their injuries will face punishments ranging from having to make a public apology to paying fines or even detention.

Other measures include offering legal aid to helpers who are sued and official visits to Good Samaritans to express the city's appreciation.

The rules also state that the burden of evidence lies on the person accusing a rescuer of wrongdoing, not on the person who does the rescue.

In several cases, police and courts have demanded that the helper prove his or her innocence, while the extortionist has not needed to produce evidence. One judge ordered a man to pay more than 45,000 yuan (£4,400) to an old lady he had taken to hospital, arguing it was common sense that he would not have gone to such trouble unless he had caused her fall.

"I am very happy that this regulation has come out. People have been hoping for it for a long time," said Professor Tan Fang of South China Normal University, who has set up a foundation giving legal support to helpers who are wrongly accused of harm.

"I hope Shenzhen can strictly enforce the regulation. I also hope the regulation will be adopted by more provinces and become a national law."

But Zhang the lawyer suggested it was unfair to place the burden of proof on the person helped.

"If so-called helpers actually made a major mistake, and the victims cannot offer evidence, then can the helpers just go unpunished by law?" he asked.

• Additional research by Han Cheng

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China increases rural poverty limit to $1 a day

BBC News, 30 November 2011

Changing China 

• Middle-class farming
• Microblogs vs communism
• Guide to how China is ruled
• The Party's enduring popularity

China has been criticised for setting the
poverty line too low

China has redefined the level at which people in rural areas are considered poor to include everyone earning less than $1 a day (6.5 yuan).

Previously people in the countryside were only regarded as poor if they earned less than 55 cents a day.

The move should see millions more people get access to state benefits.

Some 27 million people were classified as rural poor last year. The new threshold is expected to increase that number fourfold.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has made tackling rural poverty a cornerstone of his leadership.

He has rolled out large-scale development projects across China's poverty-stricken western provinces, in a bid to create what he calls a "harmonious society".

On Tuesday, state media quoted him as saying that by 2020 no-one in China would need to worry about food and clothing.

"Their access to compulsory education, basic medical care and housing will also be ensured," he said.

"The current trend of a widening rich-poor gap will be reversed."

Many of Mr Hu's plans have target dates set far in the future, which analysts say represent an attempt to build a legacy.

He is expected to step down from his leadership roles in the next two years.

China has been widely criticised for setting the poverty line too low.

But the latest move puts Beijing much closer to the World Bank's threshold of $1.25 a day.

Those newly classified as poor will be entitled to government help such as subsidies, job training, discounted loans and employment opportunities at government-funded rural infrastructure projects.

S&P downgrades top US banks' credit ratings

Associated Press, Nov 29, 2011

Latest News

• American Airlines files for bankruptcy protection
• S&P downgrades top US banks' credit ratings
• American Airlines timeline

NEW YORK (AP) -- Standard & Poors Ratings Services is adjusting the ratings on 37 of the world's largest financial institutions, including downgrading the biggest banks in the U.S.

Bank of America Corp. and its main subsidiaries were among those cut at least one notch on Tuesday, along with Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo & Co.

S&P says the changes reflect its new ratings criteria for banks, which incorporate shifts in the worldwide financial industry and macroeconomic trends, including the role of governments and central banks in industry funding.

Top U.K. downgrades include Barclays, HSBC Holdings, Lloyds Banking Group and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Ratings for several big European banks, including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, ING and Societe Generale are unchanged.

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Civil Action #8500, United States District Court for Southern District of New York,Nov 23, 2011

Fed secretly handed out $8 trillion

BofA, Goldman, Citi Credit Ratings Reduced by S&P (Bloomberg)

Downgraded:

• Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.
• Bank of America Corp.
• Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
• Barclays Plc
• Citigroup Inc.
• Rabobank Nederland
• Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
• HSBC Holdings Plc
• JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Loyds Banking Group Plc
• Morgan Stanley
• Royal Bank of Scotland Plc
• UBS AG
• Wells Fargo & Co.

Upgraded:

• Bank of China Ltd.
• China Construction Bank Corp.

Hundreds Protest Malaysian Ban on Street Rallies

Jakarta Globe, November 29, 2011

Malaysia's lawyers and members from NGOs participate in a march to
 protest against the Peaceful Assembly Bill in Kuala Lumpur on
Tuesday. (Reuters/Samsul Said)

              

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Kuala Lumpur. Hundreds of people marched on Malaysia’s parliament Tuesday as it was set to pass a law banning street protests that critics say stifles free speech and breaks a government vow to improve civil liberties.

Chanting “Bebas berhimpun” (“Free assembly”), about 500 lawyers, opposition lawmakers and activists marched in the capital Kuala Lumpur to parliament, which was expected to pass the contentious Peaceful Assembly Bill later in the day.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has framed the bill as part of a campaign he launched in September to replace tough laws on security, speech and assembly in a bid to shore up support ahead of elections he is expected to call next year.

The bill would replace current legislation requiring a police permit for public gatherings, but critics complain that it proposes a range of prohibitive new restrictions including the outright ban on street marches.

“The government must reject the bill as it infringes on the rights of the people and violates the constitution,” said Wong Chin Huat of Bersih 2.0, which spearheaded a rally for electoral reform in July that was broken up by police.

“If they don’t change the law, they will pay the price when voters abandon the government in the next general elections,” he told AFP during the march.

Najib defended the act on Monday, saying it guarantees the right to peaceful assembly.

But it has been assailed by opposition politicians who call Najib’s reforms a cynical election ploy and who say the bill validates their fears that tough old laws will merely be replaced by strict new rules.

The bill prohibits public marches to avoid disruptions to general society, Najib has said.

But it would allow gatherings to be held in designated places, such as stadiums, without prior notice, while those in other areas would first require police approval.

Malaysian Bar Council President Lim Chee Wee said the ban on street demonstrations was “outrageous.”

“Assemblies in motion provide the demonstrators with a wider audience and greater visibility, in order for others to see and hear the cause or grievance giving rise to the gathering,” he said.

Following an initial outcry, the government said it would shorten the amount of notice that assembly organisers must give police to within 10 days instead of the original 30 days.

But critics including the Malaysian Bar Council and Human Rights Watch maintain the act would grant police too much power over the timing, duration, and location of gatherings.

“This bill is a legislative attack on Malaysians’ right to peaceful protest,” Sam Zarifi, Amnesty’s Asia--Pacific director, said in a statement.

The demonstrators marched under the close watch of dozens of riot police to parliament, where they handed over a protest memorandum to a government representative.

The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition now headed by Najib has been accused of routinely using tough laws to snuff out challenges to its five decades in power.

But public opinion has turned against such strict measures in recent years as the once--insignificant political opposition has gained strength and soaring Internet use has fuelled more open debate.

AFP

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Fed secretly handed out $8 trillion

RT.com, 28 November, 2011, 20:24

An anti-Wall Street demonstrator shouts slogans in front of the
Federal Reserve Bank (AFP Photo / Frederic J. Brown)

We knew the last bailout from the Federal Reserve was pretty big, but not until now did we have statistics on the actually tally. If you thought that the $700 billion bailout for TARP was big, get a load of this.

Just exactly how big was the Federal Reserve’s bailout of the banks between the years of 2008 and 2010? Thanks to a Federal Request of Information Act gone fulfilled, America now knows the truth behind a colossal cover-up: almost $8 trillion.

Ever since the Fed stepped in to bail out the biggest banks in the country, Ben Bernanke and company have gone to great lengths to keep the exact details of the transactions a secret, citing that the truth would cause concern for the world financial crisis far greater than what was already at hand, saying in particular that investors would step away from the “too big to fail” banks that were benefiting from the bailout. And while Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke went on the record to call the bailouts to even the most “sound institutions” only “marginal,” details of the FOIA request obtained by Bloomberg News now reveals that the Federal Reserve spent nearly half of the entire production output of the US during that span of less than two years — the biggest bailout in the country’s history — while going to great lengths to keep Congress and the American people in the dark.

By March of 2009, the Fed had already dished out $7.77 trillion to save the US financial system, dwarfing other assistance programs several times over. As the financial sector was on the brink of collapse, neither the Fed nor the banks involved came clean with the truth, instead lying through their teeth to keep the total facts a mystery. Until now.

While the banks kept the bailout a secret from Congress, they lobbied to the Legislative Branch to imply more lax governmental regulations on the industry, something that would haven arguably been near impossible had the truth surfaced at the time.

The website Naked Capitalism explains it pretty clearly in not so many words: “The bottom line is everybody close to the process lied like crazy.”

On November 26, 2008, Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis told shareholders that he ran “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” On that very day, BofA was indebted to the Fed something to the tune of nearly $90 billion. Less than two weeks later, the Federal Reserve blew $1.2 trillion total in a single day to bail out the breaking financial institutions.

All the while, of course, banks were borrowing loans at interest rates of as low as 0.01 percent. “No one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates,” writes Bloomberg now.

That’s not the worst part, either. As the Fed continues to operate without oversight from the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, further bailouts are guaranteed to keep being generated at the cost of the American taxpayer while a recession still seems imminent — if not already occurring. Critics including presidential hopeful Congressman Ron Paul have lobbied to abolish the Federal Reserve once and for all. Could the next president help make that dream a reality? In the meantime, don’t be surprised if billions get borrowed at America’s expense minute by minute.

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Malaysia pressured to scrap law against rallies

The Jakarta Post, Sun, 11/27/2011

Malasian Flag

Malaysia's government faced mounting pressure Sunday to scrap plans for a law that would ban street protests, despite agreeing to ease other restrictions on rallies that activists have called repressive.

The proposed law to regulate public demonstrations has prompted lawyers, opposition leaders and rights groups to accuse Prime Minister Najib Razak's National Front coalition of cracking down on freedom of assembly ahead of general elections widely expected next year.

Details of the Peaceful Assembly Bill announced last week included a requirement for rally organizers to inform police about their plans 30 days in advance. Street demonstrations would be forbidden, effectively limiting rallies to stadiums and public halls.

Malaysia's de facto law minister, Nazri Aziz, said Saturday that the Cabinet has agreed to make several changes to the proposed law, such as reducing the advance notification period to 10 days.

However, there were no changes planned for the ban on street protests and a fine of up to 20,000 ringgit ($6,200) for demonstrators who break the law. Children under 15 would be barred from attending rallies, which also cannot be held near schools, hospitals, places of worship, airports or gasoline stations.

"In exercising their right to assemble, the rights of others must also be respected," Nazri was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.

The Bar Council, Malaysia's main lawyers group, said it would proceed with a march to Parliament to protest the proposed law on Tuesday, when federal legislators are scheduled to debate and possibly vote on it.

"It is not a piece of legislation which we, as lawyers, can watch enter our statute books without standing up against it," Bar Council President Lim Chee Wee said Sunday.

Other nongovernment groups were also planning smaller demonstrations against the plan.

Criticism about the government's stance against street rallies surged in July when police arrested hundreds of protesters and fired tear gas at more than 20,000 people who marched in Kuala Lumpur to demand greater electoral transparency.

Najib has insisted such rallies undermine public order, but he has worked to counter criticism by making numerous announcements in the past three months about plans to abolish other decades-old security laws regarded as Draconian, including ones that allow detention without trial.

However, the opposition believes the announcements are merely a ploy to bolster Najib's popularity ahead of elections and that the security laws will likely be replaced with others that still enable the government to prosecute its rivals and exert control over the mainstream media.

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Howlers and omissions exposed in world of corporate social responsibility

Study points to slapdash fact and figure checking in companies

guardian.co.uk, Juliette Jowit, Thursday 24 November 2011

Two companies both managed to excise, completely legally, a huge
coal plant from their pollution record. Photograph: John Giles/PA

Environment reports by some of the world's biggest companies are routinely including wrong statistics and leaving out vital information, according to the most comprehensive study yet carried out.

The examination of more than 4,000 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and company surveys by a team at Leeds University found "irrelevant data, unsubstantiated claims, gaps in data and inaccurate figures" – a finding that will cast serious doubt over the burgeoning sector.

Among the most colourful mistakes and omissions made by some of the world's biggest corporations were a company whose carbon footprint was four times that for the whole world, and a carmaker and power group which both, entirely legally, managed to excise a huge coal plant from their pollution record.

More regular problems included companies ignoring data from individual countries or subsidiaries in their group – including many in China and Brazil – two of the world's biggest economies

Failing to collect or ignoring data from multiple sources was so endemic that BT, which has won awards for its CSR reporting, highlighted zero energy and water use, waste and transport for many of its international operations in 2007; the following year the company did not claim they were zero but left more than half the table blank. In total, fewer than one in six of the companies surveyed reported greenhouse gases for all their operations, said the academics, and many more did not make it clear which activities were covered.

The Leeds study, carried out jointly with Euromed Management School in Marseille, France, comes just weeks after a major report by the consultancy and accountants KPMG, who found nearly two-thirds of the biggest companies in the 34 countries they studied were producing CSR reports, and that Britain was leading the world with a 100% reporting rate.

Previous studies of CSR have also praised some of the world's most reviled companies, raising doubts over the value of the practice.

"The quality of environmental data in sustainability reports remains appalling at times, even today," said Dr Ralf Barkemeyer, a lecturer in CSR at Leeds and one of the team leaders. "In financial reporting to leave out an undisclosed part of the company in the calculation of profits would be a scandal. In sustainability reporting it is common practice.

"Put provocatively, companies get points for knowing where they want to go, but nobody seems to check whether this is where they are heading. Aspiration replaces performance."

Although some of the howlers were clearly mistakes rather than attempts to distort the picture, they were wrong by such enormous factors, and sometimes for several years in a row, that it suggested they were not being read properly or taken seriously by staff inside the company, said Barkemeyer. In one example, power group ABB over-reported sulphur emissions by a factor of 1,000 by using kilotonnes instead of tonnes, for three years in a row. In another, relevant staff at a large Swedish group did not even know that it owned a paper and pulp business until the researchers pointed it out that it was the subsidiary of an acquisition.

Although the quality of reporting has improved over the 10 years or so that CSR has become commonplace, and even the period studied from 2005-2009, many problems still remain, even with the high profile issue of reporting carbon emissions, said Barkemeyer. For example, a forthcoming study of this specific issue has found "every second company has major problems".

Tom Woollard, of consultants Environmental Resources Management, said, however, that CSR reporting had also helped many companies make significant improvements, including wider issues such as staff and contractor health and safety, because publishing data forced them to address problems, and in some cases they only discovered where problems were at their worst when they collected the data. "Public EHS [environment health and safety] reporting has driven a remarkable level of transparency and performance improvement over a wide range of issues in a relatively short time," said Woollard. "Our experience of working with some of the world largest multinationals is to put more effort into achieving fewer targets – only then can you achieve a real step change in performance."

Barkemeyer said improvements should come from more public scrutiny and companies should follow the lead of mining group BHP Billiton, which asked KPMG to check and sign off its reported emissions "We pretend it's better when it's voluntary [as are the commonly used Global Reporting Initiative standards for CSR] because companies can respond more quickly, but in some cases they don't make any effort and if we don't make an effort in terms of scrutiny who can blame them," he added.

In a statement, BT said: "As the research from Leeds University highlights, this is a new and evolving science, and one that is especially complex when it comes to trying to standardise measurement and reporting across dozens of countries. International data collection is far more complex than it is in the UK and, in some countries, the data is just not available. In those instances where reliable data isn't available a zero appears in the report. We will review the points highlighted and, where necessary, look to update our CSR reporting in coming years."

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   (Photo: RNW)

Chinese VP calls for deepening Sino-Japanese co-op in energy conservation, environmental protection

English.news.cn   2011-11-26

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (1st R, front) meets with Edano Yukio
 (1st L, front), Japanese minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, who came
to attend the sixth China-Japan forum on energy conservation and environmental
protection held in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 26, 2011. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang called for efforts to deepen Sino-Japanese cooperation in energy conservation and environmental protection and create new economic growth areas while addressing a Sino-Japanese environment forum here on Saturday.

Li made the remark at the sixth China-Japan forum on energy conservation and environmental protection held in Beijing.

Li said, as the European debt crisis is still expanding, the global financial market undergoes much turmoil, and many countries are experiencing slower growth and rising prices, risks of a long-term recession are piling up.

Under such circumstances, Li said, a new growth pattern is needed more than ever.

China and Japan are large economies as well as major consumers of energy, and economic restructuring is in the interests of both, Li said, suggesting coupling China's advantage of a huge market with Japan's technological edge so as to enhance bilateral cooperation in energy conservation and environmental protection.

Furthermore, Li said as both countries are major importers of energy, the two should boost consultations on energy issues and get a bigger say on the international energy market.

Li also called upon both governments to financially aid cooperative projects in this field, and push forward a showcase project of circular economy which belongs to China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Additionally, Li expressed hope that Japan introduce its state-of-the-art energy and environmental protection technologies into China, and urged greater efforts to protect intellectual property rights.

Speaking of China, Li said the country is speeding up economic restructuring. Otherwise, either its long-term growth or the current fast and steady growth cannot be sustained.

Energy conservation and environmental protection are crucial to economic restructuring in that they create new fields for generating economic growth, Li said, adding that they spur new market demands, upgrade enterprises' technology, and improve people's quality of life.

This is where great potential lies in for China, a country that has just entered middle-income club, to further develop its national economy. And, this is also an unavoidable path for the nation to smash its resources and environment bottlenecks and realize sustainable development, Li said.

He added that China's energy conservation and environmental protection sector now boasts a gigantic market and enormous business opportunities.

While meeting with Edano Yukio on the sideline of the forum, Li urged closer bilateral cooperation in boosting energy saving and low-carbon economies.

Calling the two countries important nations in the region and the world, Li said to enhance China-Japan relations not only meets their interests but also benefits peaceful development and stability of the world, and in particular, the Asian-Pacific region.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao had several meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on international occasions in recent days, and reached important consensus on deepening bilateral strategic relations of mutual benefits, said the vice premier.

He called on both sides to take the opportunity of the 40th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan relations, to strengthen dialogues, exchanges and cooperation in various areas, enhance mutual trust, and to facilitate long-term healthy growth of bilateral ties.

Edano Yukio told Li Japan is committed to boosting stronger cooperation with China in various areas.

The forum was initiated in 2006 with an aim to facilitate bilateral cooperation in energy conservation and environmental protection.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KPMG chairman says evidence of 'significant fraud' in Olympus scandal

Michael Andrew also called for more co-ordinated regulatory oversight of the auditing industry

guardian.co.uk, Reuters, Friday 25 November 2011

KPMG AZSA audited Olympus for several years until 2009.
Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

KPMG'S chairman on Friday called for a global set of standards for the auditing industry and said the Olympus scandal in Japan reveals evidence of "significant fraud".

Michael Andrew, the chairman, also outlined steps needed to improve the auditing industry in a in a speech entitled, "Fraud, Financial Crises and the Future of the Big Four" to the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong.

KPMG AZSA audited Olympus for several years until 2009, when it was replaced by Ernst & Young ShinNihon. An internal document obtained by Reuters showed that the maker of cameras and medical equipment replaced KPMG after a dispute over how to account for some acquisitions.

Andrew said he was constrained in what he could say about the Olympus scandal, although he did address the issue, saying that KPMG had done the right thing in the actions it took pertaining to the Japanese company.

"What is pretty evident to me is that it is a very, very significant fraud," he said, adding: "We should wait for the Japanese authorities to disclose that.

"I think it is very hard to jump to the conclusion that it's a corporate governance failure," he said. "Regulation will never prevent corporate scandals," he added, saying that the amount of actual corporate frauds found globally is relatively "tiny".

Andrew also called for more co-ordinated regulatory oversight as auditing firms have found themselves caught between regulators wanting different rules and standards, such as the current issue facing the United States and China.

He spoke of the difficulties in Europe, where accounting for Greek debt was not done according to a single set of standards by the parties involved. Andrew cited the case of France and Germany accounting for bonds using different figures.

"So how do you account for Greek debt?" he asked, pointing out that the accounting standards should be the same. As for how that impacts the banks involved, that's up to regulators to determine, he said.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the US auditor watchdog, has been pushing to be allowed to inspect Chinese audit firms, but talks with authorities in Beijing appear to have stalled in recent months.

In October, audit industry sources told Reuters that China's financial authorities had asked the big audit firms to review their work on US-listed Chinese companies and disclose any information they may have shared with overseas regulators.

Andrew said that while this does not often happen, being caught between regulators in the United States and China in this instance makes auditing very difficult. He cited the need for global regulatory oversight to help avoid such cases.

China has been one of the fastest-growing markets in the world for accounting firms, expanding by nearly 20% in 2010 and accounting for an estimated $1.5bn in revenue for the Big Four firms last year, according to data from the International Accounting Bulletin.

KPMG has 10,000 people in China, he said. The issues the auditing industry has faced with Chinese clients lately is not crimping the firm's growth plans there, he said.

One issue being mentioned as a way to help corporate governance is audit rotation, where companies are forced to switch auditors after a certain period of time.

Andrew was critical of this idea, saying that this raises cost concerns and that mistakes can go undetected during an audit handover.

"The empirical evidence shows that errors occur on that change," he said.

Among the items he listed to improve the industry was allowing firms to expand the scope of their audits and mandatory co-operation between auditors and regulators.

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