Recently, UFIDA Software Co., Ltd. (UFIDA) and the Japan-based NTT DATA Corporation (NTT) have jointly invited Charles Hoffman, the father of XBRL, to UFIDA-Government Software Co., Ltd. (UFIDA-Government) for a symposium on XBRL in China. Also attending the symposium were experts and scholars from the Accounting Regulatory Department of the Ministry of Finance (ARDMOF), the Research Institute for Fiscal Science of the Ministry of Finance (RIFSMOF), the IT Center of National Audit Office of the People’s Republic of China (IT Center of CNAO), the Information Office of State Administration of Taxation (IOSAT) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Major participants include Doctoral Supervisor Prof. Zhou Nan of RIFSMOF also Deputy to the National People's Congress, Deputy Secretary General Xu Yuhong of Accounting Society of China (ASC), Doctor Leng Bing from 2nd Office of China Accounting Standards Committee (CASC), Doctor Wang Jing from ARDMOF, Senior Engineer Sun Zhonghe from IT Center of CNAO, Bian Lijun from IOSAT and Doctor Lu Ke from Graduate University of CAS.

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), as an open international standard with an independent platform, is an important branch and extension of XML (eXtensible Markup Language). XBRL is mainly applied to the exchange of business reporting information. In the past, data compilation, editing, analysis and exchange of business reports are time-consuming and request numerous manual tasks. With the XBRL technology, the information exchange of business reports and financial data is simplified. XBRL revolutionizes the business reporting and benefits the society through saved cost, improved efficiency, high data accuracy and increased reliability.

Charlie Hoffman, who proposed the concept of XBRL in April 1998, was an accountant in Washington, U.S.A. In August 1999, XBRL International Steering Committee (ISC) was established by 12 companies including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Microsoft and PricewaterhouseCoopers. So far, more than 250 institutions have joined the ISC. ISC members come from accountants associations, intermediaries, software and service industry, investors and creditors, analysis institutions, supervision authorities, academic sector, private enterprises and government agencies. Our neighbour Japan and Korea have established their XBRL jurisdictions. Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Sage, Hyperion and NTT DATA are members of XBRL International.

Charlie Hoffman talked to all attendees about his accomplishments, experience and lessons of the popularisation and implementation of XBRL and exchanged with the experts and scholars his opinions on issues in the future promotion of XBRL in China. With experts' suggestions, attendees realized that XBRL's popularisation in China would be more about policy, standards and application than the technology. Therefore, XBRL's popularisation in China should take China's actual situation into account and be carried out in a way with Chinese characteristics.

According to the attendees, government authorities' attitude and influence are of great significance, and government authorities, such as the Ministry of Finance (MOF), should guide XBRL's popularization and development in China. As for XBRL's future popularization in China, Deputy Minister Wang Jun of the MOF once indicated, "as to the building of XBRL research organizations, we have decided to adopt the framework of the CASC to establish China’s XBRL jurisdiction. Moreover, we plan to join XBRL International in the name of the CASC. Meanwhile, we will establish an open research platform and widely absorb all research elites. Thus, for the stable promotion of XBRL's popularisation, we will study the national-level XBRL taxonomy, compile XBRL application instance and research XBRL's requirement and application in China. We also hope that the Accounting Informatization Committee of the ASC takes some active measures." According to the attendees, to represent XBRL's features and to achieve the best application effect, XBRL application should not only be taken into account in information disclosure of listed companies, but also in social infrastructure including finance and tax.

Experts and scholars who attended the meeting expressed their expectation to XBRL's development in China, in hope of establishing XBRL jurisdiction in China as soon as possible. They also showed their willingness of continuously enhancing international exchange and cooperation to further promote XBRL in China.

Besides, Koh-ichiro Hiraiwa, on behalf of NTT DATA, gave the "Financial Reporting Using XBRL IFRS and US GAAP Edition" by Charles Hoffman as presents to UFIDA and the present experts and scholars.

Charles Hoffman and NTT DATA paid a special visit to UFIDA, making special exchanges with and demonstration of XBRL to research and development staff from UFIDA, UFIDA-Government and UFIDA Finance Software System Co., Ltd.