The final report of Singapore’s Committee to
Develop the Accountancy Sector (CDAS) has suggested Singapore
should double its export of professional accountancy services to
the Asia-Pacific region in the next 10 years.
The CDAS was established by the Ministry of
Finance in December 2008 to review Singapore’s accountancy sector.
The aim is to position Singapore as a leading international centre
for accountancy services and professionals by 2020.
The final CDAS report was submitted to the
Minster of Finance this week. It suggests Singapore should seek to
more than double the accountancy sector’s contribution to GDP from
the existing 0.4% to 1% by 2020.
Key to this will be doubling Singapore’s
export of accountancy services.
“The growth of the accountancy market should be
achieved through developing a stronger international outlook for
the sector, both in terms of service provision and professional
development,” the report notes.
“There is great potential for the public
accountancy entities based in Singapore to expand their work
through growing existing and new regional markets and in providing
high value-adding specialised niche services.”
The report contains 10 key recommendations
under the following three key strategies:
- To become a leading global
centre for accountancy talent, education, thought leadership and
professional development; - To become a leading centre
for high value-adding professional accountancy services;
and, - To strengthen the Singapore
accountancy sector’s infrastructure and institutions.
The preparation of the CDAS report included
more than 100 meetings and focus group sessions with more than 80
stakeholder groups and interested parties.
