Picture shows the Prime Minister, Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara, and prof. Lakshman Watawala |
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake last week lashed out at foreign professional educational institutes operating in Sri Lanka, saying “these foreign institutes not only charge exorbitant fees but also take out our valuable foreign exchange.”
He was speaking at the launch of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka (CMA) in Colombo. This important professional body in Sri Lanka was long overdue as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka was incorporated as far back as 1959 and neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have established management accountants bodies, just after they obtained independence from the British.
Credit for this important step in professional accountancy in Sri Lanka goes to Prof Lakshman R Watawala, founder President of CMA. CMA has been incorporated through parliament by Act No.23 of 2009.
The Prime Minister said that these courses of study could be done at one tenth of the foreign cost and said that as the course fees at CMA is affordable, there would be more and more Sinhala and Tamil students joining CMA and it would create more and more employment.
He said that management accountants would play a leading role in the economy particularly after the eradication of terrorism in the country, but warned that ending terrorism alone would not be the answer to all the problems in the country. The neglected society has to be developed and the answer to that problem is to raise the standard of living of the people and allowing them to enter the normal benefits that “You and I are enjoying in Colombo”.
Prof Watawala said that history was created in the global accounting profession when Sri Lanka, after 50 years since the incorporation of ICASL in 1959, has incorporated a new Professional Management Accounting Institute.
He said that all this time they were dependent on foreign management accounting qualifications with no due recognition by the government for this profession. He said that the benefit of becoming management accountants were earlier limited to a privileged few who obtained foreign qualifications, but with the advent of CMA Sri Lanka the benefits would be for a wider range of Sri Lankans at an affordable price. It would give a big boost to the professional education in this country and for the youth. |
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