Jaydeep Narain Shah, ICAI President
The Dubai Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has grown to become the most active among the 21 overseas chapters of the giant professional body.
GLOBALLY, ICAI has expanded and now stands as the second largest accounting organisation in the world, with over 170,000 members.
In an exclusive interview with Accountant Middle East, the President of the global ICAI based in India – Jaydeep Narain Shah (pictured left) – says Dubai, being the business hub of Middle East, occupies pivotal role in the ICAI initiatives in providing a global benchmark to its membership. Here are the excerpts from the interview;
What, in your opinion, has propelled the growth of the Dubai Chapter to become the most dynamic among the 21 overseas chapters of ICAI?
With more than 1,750 members, the Dubai bureau is actively involved in enhancing and updating the professional knowledge of its associates and towards this end, conducts several professional lectures and seminars, in collaboration with other institutions. These affiliations have largely enabled the Chapter to expand and grow our operations in the region.
For instance, ICAI entered into an agreement with the Higher Colleges of Technology in Dubai, and is presently working to draw a framework for organising joint programmes.
ICAI also signed a MoU with the College of Banking and Financial Studies (CBFS) in Oman, to provide assistance and support to CBFS in the area of capacity building of Omani nationals in accounting, auditing and other allied areas. Similarly, the body is providing all required technical assistance to help establish an Omani Institute of Chartered Accountants.
In Bahrain, ICAI has signed a joint declaration with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance, to establish closer working ties that would enable the two to draw synergies from the professional expertise available with each other in areas of accounting, financial engineering and corporate governance. Equally, the Institute has proposed to enter into partnership with the Saudi Organisation for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA), which is still under consideration.
You recently inaugurated a new teaching facility at the Knowledge Village. Why did you feel it was important for ICAI to open a campus in Dubai?
The Dubai office of ICAI was primarily established for the benefit of its members and students residing in the Middle East. Since its establishment in 2004 it has been operating from the Knowledge Village (KV).
The number of members and students has almost doubled during the past four years and the Chapter is expecting a similar increase in future. The activities at ICAI Dubai branch have expanded multi-fold. At times, five classes are being conducted simultaneously, including the IFRS classes for members, the GMCS Programme, CPT, IPCC, Final coaching classes and IT training for CA students.
In addition, the growth in the number of students in CPT, IPCC and Final and GMCS is considerable and there was a need to run classes continuously. The current batch of CPT has over 50 students and it is expected that this number will grow phenomenally in the coming years reaching to over 400 students by the year 2015.
Therefore, the opening of the new campus was essential to cater to the growing need of students and members.
Why is it important for students to gain a CA qualification from ICAI?
Today, India is the biggest source of young manpower to the world which is technically competent and highly skilled. In the context of Chartered Accountancy professionals, the ICAI, being a true partner in the nation building is a front runner in developing the capabilities and skills of upcoming CAs.
The fresh entrants to the CA course not only focus on developing their academic capabilities but are expected to hone their skills in various other fields like Information Technology (IT) and personality development. To sum up, our chartered accountancy course provides an excellent opportunity for students and gears them up towards rendering quality services to the society.
For over six decades, ICAI has made an enviable niche for itself in the realm of education, training, examination, disciplinary mechanism, peer review, continuing professional development and standard setting and we aim to continue on that trajectory.
