English Language in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Essay

English Language in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Essay Example ARAMCO produces all of the crude oil in Saudi Arabia which massive oil reserves amount to over 25 % of the entire world's proven oil reserves (Cordesman 2003, pp. 465, 467). An important after-effect of this oil boom was the immediate massive importation of foreign engineers and other technical experts to man ARAMCO's oil depot, structures and offices. The common denominator of all these personnel was the English language. There arose a need to train Saudi employees and on-the-job Saudi technical people to learn and speak the English language in order to communicate with these foreign technical experts. This need to master the English language was heightened when King Faisal decided to utilise the huge oil revenues from the burgeoning Saudi oil industry to modernise Saudi Arabia by launching large-scale infrastructure programs in the fields of education, telecommunications, transportation, housing, health, social welfare, water, electricity and other utilities (Mackey 1987, p.43). This thereby necessitated importation of more foreign technical experts who had to be conversed and communicated with by the Saudi people in the English language. We also must not forget that annually more than 2 million Muslim people from all over the world converge in a requisite once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage or Hajj mainly to the cities of Mecca and Medina and they too must be interacted with using the English language (Siddiqui 2006, p.70). ... so must not forget that annually more than 2 million Muslim people from all over the world converge in a requisite once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage or Hajj mainly to the cities of Mecca and Medina and they too must be interacted with using the English language (Siddiqui 2006, p.70). Moreover, such gargantuan oil revenues had been decided also to be used for international operations in subsidiaries and joint ventures in USA, Japan, China, South Korea, Philippines, Greece and elsewhere, all designed for finding outlets for the country's immense crude oil production (Cordesman & Al-Rodhan 2006, p.211). The Saudi oil bonanza had also raised the standard of living and modernised practically all aspect of Saudi society. In the realm of business, Saudi Arabia has suddenly become a commercial hub. It had successfully beckoned several multinational companies to establish business interests in the kingdom. The banking system was energised with the establishment of such banks as Saudi American, Sa udi British, Saudi Dutch, Saudi French etc. Businesses like supermarkets, hotels, restaurants sprouted which all required from their personnel working knowledge of English, the world's lingua franca. Even established corporations such as Saudi Airlines, Aramco, Dallah, Samarec etc. require all their personnel to possess a high level of proficiency in English, which is a sine qua non requirement for acceptance in their employment. All are required to undergo further honing of English skills with more training and instruction (Fishman et al, 1996, p.460). The elevation of the standards of living has necessitated the employment of 8.8 million expatriate workers who are employed on jobs that native Saudis cannot fill or are unwilling to fill and of these some 2 million are English

Comparative Financial Reporting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Comparative Financial Reporting - Essay Example Material misstatements are misstatements that can affect users' decisions on the financial statements of a company. The auditor may either issue an unmodified opinion (when the financial statements are not materially misstated or a modified opinion (when the financial statements are materially misstated). (McMeeking, 2006). This paper examines contemporary issues between International Financial Reporting IFRS and the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles GAAP. The IASB / FASB project on revising the conceptual Framework has removed ' substance over form'. (IASB / FASB May 2008, Exposure Draft, Conceptual framework for Financial Reporting ) . The explanation is: BC2.19. The Boards concluded that faithful representation means that financial reporting information represent the substance of an economic phenomenon rather than solely its legal form. To represent legal form that differs from the economic substance of the underlying economic phenomenon could not result in a faithful representation. Accordingly, the proposed framework does not identify substance over form as a component of faithful representation because to do so would be redundant. However, the fair value view assumes that market are relatively perfect and complete and that in such a setting financial reports should satisfy both the interest of passive investors and creditors by stating a current value derived from the current market prices. An alternative view to this doctrine assumes that markets are imperfect and incomplete and that in such a market settings, monitoring requirements of shareholders should be catered for. To conclude therefore, in the words of Whittington (2007), the practical supports of two views is unrealistic as in a realistic market setting; the search for a universal measurement method may be fruitless. According to Whittington (2007), a more appropriate approach to the measurement problem might be to define a clear measurement objective and to select the measurement that best meet the objective. 1. 2.0 Identify and comment on what you regard as the 4 most significant accounting policy differences between IFRS's and US GAAP ' (200 words) International Accounting Standards (IAS/IFRS) are a set of accounting standards promulgated by the International Accounting Standards committee (IASC) and intended to be used as a basis for cross-border capital raising and listing in global financial markets. (Asbaugh, 2001). The main goal of the International set of Accounting Standards is to standardise the financial and accounting method disclosures of firms in different nations. That is, if firms follow the same set of accounting standards, their external financial reports will provide more uniform disclosures and thus investors would make more use of the variables inherent in the financial statements. (Asbaugh, 2001). Also, firms and investors would benefit from financial statements prepared following an international set of accounting standards. (Asbaugh, 2001). In meeting with the above objectives, the European Union issued regulation 1606/2002 of July 19, 2002 requiring that all companies listed in the European Union and European listed companies in other countries to adopt international accounting standards in their Financial statements from 1st January 2005 onwards. The regulation also gave member states the