Call for major changes in accounting and financial sector

Sarath Malalasekera

The Chartered In- stitute of Management Accountants (CIMA) is looking for major changes in the world of finance and accounting as the technological revolution has led to a growth in finance. Finance functions are being consolidated and operated in different parts of the world often very remote from an organisation's physical operations, said Employer and Strategic Development CIMA Director Rick Sturge.

Sturge who was the chief guest at the launching of CIMA Corporate Partner Programme held at the Trans Asia hotel recently said that it is not unusual today for a US organisation to have its finance function partly based in Eastern Europe and the bulk of the transactional activities undertaken in China. India or the Philippines often without a specific need for knowledge of different languages.

The CIMA is very pleased to be launching our Corporate partner Programme for Sri Lanka here in Colombo. I am particularly proud and privileged to have been invited to launch the programme," Sturge added.

He also emphasised that 'our goal is to be the leading management accounting organisation in the world and for our qualification to be acknowledged as the accounting qualification of choice by the world's leading organisations. This will encourage the cream of today's talent to want to pursue the CIMA qualification.

"Today we have 160,000 members and students working in 160 countries around the world. Our members can be found occupying top level finance and managerial roles in major multinationals including Unilever, Ford, HSBC, Accenture, Merrill Lynch and BT as well as major Government organisations," he said.

This globalisation of accounting is driving a need to ensure consistency of accounting skill, application and quality across the globe. Our Institute is the only one of its type offering total consistency in all four corners of the world.

Whether a student is studying in China, Australia, South Africa, or Iceland, they study the same syllabus in English and sit for the exams at the same time. Recently we had 35,000 students sitting our exams in more than 100 countries, he said.