NUMBER crunchers are urged to prepare for disruptive technologies, as member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations lurch forward to an Asean Economic Community (AEC).
As Asean embraces the concept of an integrated smart region with the establishment of the AEC at the end of last year, the rapid growth of mobile, analytics and cloud technologies will bring about a greater interconnectedness among accountants in Asean, a statement by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (Acca) said. This will see the need for accounting and finance professionals to adopt new skillsets in order to work seamlessly across borders.
“Amid a wave of disruptive technological innovations expected to transform the accounting sector, larger firms may have the resources to make decisive moves to prepare for the future, but smaller firms may be grappling with resource challenges and are unable to do so,” Indranee Rajah said during the Acca meeting in Singapore on June 17.
“Take small steps, and be open to embracing new technologies and acquiring new skillsets,” Rajah, Singapore senior minister of state for law and finance, said during her keynote address.
Acca’s meeting comes after the International Data Corp. said in April that financial services IT spending will reach almost $480 billion worldwide in 2016, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 4.2 percent.