Management accounting profession to build relationships, not walls, outside America

Las Vegas, USA. The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) eyes building relationships in Latin America through its chapter in Mexico, The Accountant has learnt.

In stark contrast to the messages emerging from the presumptive Republican candidate to the presidential race, Donald Trump (who pledged to build a wall dividing Mexico and the USA if he was elected), management accountants seem to be more interested in building relationship with their Latin American colleagues.

Armando Castro Silva, vice-president of IMA chapter in Mexico, told The Accountant that he has plans to unite Spanish-speaking accountants in the region.

The Latin American region has traditionally been a hard area for global professional bodies, where their presence is scarce.

Meanwhile Jim Gurowka, IMA vice-president of international development told The Accountant that in a month’s time the institute will open an office in Shenzhen, to serve markets around the Hong Kong area.

This office will be the third in China, joining those in in Beijing and Shanghai, where IMA has 19 full-time staff.

"With the Minister of Finance talking of how important management accounting is for companies, we’ve seen a lot more of Chinese firms wanting to build their capabilities and getting up to speed to compete on a global state," Gurowka said.

IMA recently opened its seventh global office in Singapore. In that respect he said the Singapore Accountancy Commission understands that the more players there are in the market to support their profession the better.

Gurowka said: "Singapore has a goal of being the accounting hub of Asia-Pac by 2020. So they are trying everything they can to support the profession there.

"COSO [ERM framework] has been adopted as the official standard for listed companies in Singapore. They recognise that we are a leading proponent of COSO and they want to do some work with us there."

IMA could also be considering the possibility of opening an international office in India, which is a critical accountancy market where it has 2,000 members and eight chapters, according to Gurowka.