FINANCIAL AND MONETARY AFFAIRS
without having to become bankrupt, and substantially simplifies procedures under the ordinance.
During the year, the Court of First Instance of the High Court made 639 receiving orders and 503 winding-up orders. Assets realised by the Official Receiver during 1997 amounted to $79.37 million, while creditors in 210 insolvency cases received $99.51 million in dividends.
Professional Accountancy
Hong Kong had 13 695 registered professional accountants at the end of 1997. Of these, 2409 were certified public accountants (CPAs) or public accountants (PAs) who are in public practice and entitled to perform statutory audits. There were 920 CPA firms and 31 corporate practices in Hong Kong at the end of the year.
The Hong Kong Society of Accountants is a self-regulatory body established under the Professional Accountants Ordinance with a wide range of responsibilities for registering professional accountants, maintaining accounting, auditing and ethical standards for the profession and conducting professional accountants' examinations. The Hong Kong Society of Accountants is developing its own independent professional examinations and aims to hold its first examination in 1999 to establish its own benchmarks for competency standards for professional accountants. The existing Joint Examination Scheme held by the Hong Kong Society of Accountants and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) will continue until 2002.
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