CIMA is live-blogging the World Congress of Accountants (WCOA) 2010 from 8-11th 2010. With over 6,000 accountants descending on Kuala Lumpur to attend, and a host of leading experts and practitioners from the finance field billed to speak, our direct reports and photos from keynotes, panels, and launch events provide a flavour of what's happening as it unfolds, and what key trends and themes are emerging.

What follows are selected highlights from WCOA Day 2: Tuesday 9th November 2010...

In his morning lecture, HRH Prince Charles argued that integrated reporting of accounting information was crucial to mitigating climate change. He called accountants ‘the engine room of organisations.’

Olivia Faulkner, NED of 3 public companies in the US, later noted that 76% of executives find sustainability has a positive impact on long-term shareholder value; yet only 25% of CEOs regard it as a top 3 priority.

CIMA launched its report Reflections from Asia Pacific leaders: strategies for career progression, part of the women in leadership campaign, at a cocktail reception.

The pleasing diversity of delegates at the conference was demonstrated by a nun from the Philippines, who called for adoption of international reporting standards with local flexibility.

In his address, Professor Richard Petty slated HSBC’s ‘impenetrable’ annual reports. CIMA member Lalith Fonseka later noted that 90% of FDs surveyed in a CIMA FTSE 350 study thought financial reports too complex. A common language for reporting is good, she continued, but we've made a common language no one understands!

Wim A Van der Stede, CIMA Professor of accounting at the London School of Economics noted that ‘accountants are moving from scorekeepers to co-pilots.’ Their growing role, he said in his plenary session, means they must ‘never become subservient’ to outside pressures. Accountants in the east are more concerned with their objectivity than in the west, he further observed.

Alfred Ramosedi’s well received presentation emphasised that boards must become the custodians of enterprise governance; which, he stated firmly, ‘begins and ends with good people’. He believes that CIMA is leading the way through enterprise governance thought leadership.

You can follow all the live coverage on our special WCOA 2010 page.

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[round-up produced by Deirdre Molloy and Adrian Clifton]