Smart Media handpicked by global body for integrated reporting
View(s):The London-based International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), has partnered with Sri Lanka’s Smart Media, the Annual Report Company, to prepare the IIRC Integrated Report 2017.
IIRC CEO Richard Howitt and Vijith Kannangara.
Business sources said that a Sri Lankan company’s involvement in preparing this global report is not only a confidence boost to the local company but also to Sri Lanka as a whole.
According to a statement issued by IIRC, a series of ‘breakthrough’ moments have been named by the council in the integrated report published on September 13, “signalling the breadth of support for integrated reporting as it becomes embedded by businesses around the world”.
Integrated reporting has been established since 2010 as a broad-based framework for business and investment decisions which are long-term, inclusive and with purpose. The IIRC has brought together more than 70 international organisations, with the common mission to make integrated reporting the global norm for companies.
Among the features in the report are – Sixteen regulators around the world have recommended or moved to align with integrated reporting, with many corporate governance codes encouraging voluntary adoption, including in South Africa, Japan and Malaysia; Market feedback through a global feedback exercise demonstrating business moving from awareness of integrated reporting to its implementation; Investors from across the world signing a statement committing to investment decisions in line with the IIRC’s objective of long term value creation; and the production of a new blueprint showing how businesses can address the UN Sustainable Development Goals through integrated reporting.
It also included the creation of a practitioner network for integrated reporting in the US for the first time:
A statement from the International Accounting Standards Board Chair that the International Integrated Reporting Framework is compatible with the IASB’s own conceptual framework: Convening the Corporate Reporting Dialogue, including bringing the major financial and non-financial frameworks to a common position in support of the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure; and a categorical position statement from the International Federation of Accountants that integrated reporting is the future for corporate reporting, the statement said.
The IIRC said it has partnered with Smart Media to develop the digital content of the 2017 integrated report, including, for the first time, an interactive online HTML version of the annual report and an executive summary for mobile devices.
Dr. Vijith Kannangara, Chairman of Smart Media, the Annual Report Company, said, “Report preparers often seek help with communicating their story while meeting the need to be concise and complete. The answer to resolving this apparent paradox is to provide stakeholders with a choice of channels in a manner that best suits them through a combination of on-line HTML, print, mobile or video. The IIRC’s Integrated Report 2017 does just that.”