With integrated reporting (IR) continuing to remain a key area of focus across the globe amidst reinforced demands for corporate responsibility, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) which has continuously promoted the IR framework in the country, has once organized a wide-ranging webinar series on this important subject.
An exciting line up of highly specialized subject experts will steer a nine-session online seminar series which will kick off on 16th June and conclude on 08th September 2022. The Zoom-based series will be especially beneficial to annual report preparers, business leaders, entrepreneurs, CFOs, CEOs, academia, and students who want to learn more about integrated reporting and its numerous benefits apart from why companies, both big and small must follow the framework.
The series will open on 16th June featuring Raja Senanayake, Chief Officer, Smart Academy, who will speak on “Integrated Reporting: The Investor’s Perspective,” while the second session on “SDGs in Integrated Thinking and Reporting” will be presented by the highly acclaimed Dr. Ravi Fernando, Chairman/CEO, Global Strategic Corporate Sustainability Pvt Ltd on 29th June. The third session by Jerad Dias, Partner, BDO Sri Lanka on 06th July will shed light on “The Paradigm Shift: The Future of Reporting on Value Creation.”
The fourth session, which is scheduled to be held on 19th July will feature Ranjani Joseph, Partner, KPMG Sri Lanka who will share her insights on “Integrated Reporting Assurance,” while the fifth session on how to use the “International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Framework and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standards together” will be presented by Aruni Rajakarier, Director, SheConsults (Pvt) Ltd on 27th July. With more and more corporates looking to adopt integrated reporting, the sixth session on 10th August will see Suresh Gooneratne, Director/CFO, DIMO PLC share his company’s experience during the session titled “Integrated Reporting and the Anatomy of the Corporate.”
The seventh session on “Transition to Integrated Reporting: How to Get Started” will be held on 18th August featuring Mohan Thanthirige, Group Financial Controller & Vice President, John Keells Holdings who will shed insights on how corporates can kick off their integrated reporting journey. The eighth session on the “IFC Governance and Disclosures Framework on Integrated Reporting” is scheduled to be held on 30th August and will feature Lopa Rahman, ESG Officer, IFC – South Asia, while series will conclude with the ninth session titled ‘An Asian Perspective on Practical Challenges and Strategies for Successful Implementation’ on 08th September which will be presented by Dr. Nandita Mishra, Lecturer at Linkoping University (Sweden) & Ambassador, IIRC London.
The moderators for the series will be Ashane Jayasekara, Chairman, Integrated Reporting Council of Sri Lanka and Asite Talwatte, Former Chairman of the Integrated Reporting Council of Sri Lanka.
Unlike in the past, stakeholders including investors today have higher expectations and demands from companies now, and amidst increasing access to information, they are privy to what is happening around them in terms of environment, technology and good practices. Hence, there is a growing need for companies, both big and small to ensure it provides stakeholders with access to information in terms of how the company is creating and adding value on a short and long-term basis, while moving away from the conventional annual reporting, which largely focused on financial aspects and the bottom line of a company.
Since 2012, CA Sri Lanka has taken the lead in promoting the Integrated Reporting framework amongst corporates in Sri Lanka, and in 2016, CA Sri Lanka also launched the Integrated Reporting Council of Sri Lanka, under the guidance of the International Integrated Reporting Council.