Accountants dream of turning Singapore into a vibrant ‘number-crunching global hub’ by 2020

So now the bean counters want global domination too, who knew?

In a survey on this, 91% of respondents indicated they believed that professional development avenues such as a post-graduate, structured professional accountancy qualification will help strengthen and broaden the accountancy talent pool, and 89% firmly believe that the qualification will help Singapore develop into a global accountancy hub. In addition, 95% indicated that the professional development of Chief Financial Officers and development of specialisation pathways in internal audit, risk management, business valuation and international tax will enhance the sector’s capabilities.

ICPAS conducted the survey as part of its research on talent management trends within the accountancy sector. In all, the Institute conducted four surveys and polls[1] on the subject this year. Talent management is vital to the Singapore Government’s vision to transform the country into a leading global accountancy hub for the Asia-Pacific region by 2020. The Pro-Tem Singapore Accountancy Council is driving initiatives to achieve this, based on the CDAS recommendations.
ICPAS President Dr Ernest Kan said: “The survey results suggest strong support for the CDAS recommendations and in general the profession has bought into the vision to transform Singapore into a global accountancy hub by 2020.”

Although results indicate that the profession in general strongly supports and believes in the Government’s vision for the accountancy sector, 95% of respondents indicated that more government funding and support are needed to transform Singapore into a global accountancy hub. These include training subsidies and grants as well as tax incentives and reliefs for CPA firms to offset staff training expenses. Respondents suggested making it mandatory for companies to send their accounting and finance staff for training and development.