Regional political alignment crucial for regional financial integration, expert says
Martin van Roekel
For regional financial integration to happen, it is necessary to have an adequate level of regional political alignment in order to realise a basic regional financial integration, a top expert said.
“It is important to start with the basics of financial integration, implement this, create mutual trust and move from there to further financial integration,” Martin van Roekel, CEO of BDO International Ltd on his first visit to Sri Lanka, told the Business Times.
He added that Sri Lanka has an excellent geographic position to play a relevant role in the Chinese One Belt, One Road initiative enabling Sri Lanka to play a role as economic and logistical hub for the region. “In order to fulfill such a role Chinese (and local) investments will be necessary,” he stressed.
BDO is an international network of public accounting, tax and advisory firms which perform professional services under the name of BDO. As of 2016, BDO has member firms in 158 countries, employs around 67,000 partners and staff in over 1,400 offices throughout the world, and is the fifth largest professional services network globally. BDO Partners in Sri Lanka is a firm of Chartered Accountants operating since 1958, providing Auditing, Accounting, Taxation and other related services to its clients over the years. The financial advisory services are performed by skilled teams of professionals, led by leaders who have in-depth knowledge with local and global experience, with an understanding of the challenging environment in which the clients operate.
Mr. Van Roekel, and Stephen Darley, CEO, Asia Pacific were in Sri Lanka on February 21-22. The agenda for their visit included visiting the BDO Sri Lanka office, meeting with heads of Government Institutions, key clients of BDO Sri Lanka and other stakeholders including regulators and meeting with officials of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Sri Lanka.
Sujeewa Rajapaksa, Managing Partner of BDO Sri Lanka, said, “We see a rising trend in the BSO/KPO industries in Sri Lanka and Martin and Stephen who are both working on a global platform, are in a position to promote financial advisory services in Sri Lanka. The Government is currently looking at Public Private Partnerships, where investors are requested to tie-up with the Government, especially for large scale infrastructure development projects. BDO Sri Lanka being a part of a global network is confident that professional service firms, has a significant role to play in the development of the country, in light of the investments that are being channeled to Sri Lanka from overseas.”
Mr. Van Roekel added that BDO can not only contribute to the future growth of the Sri Lanka economy by helping their local clients to realise growth but also by helping to attract foreign direct investments by BDO clients and other companies. “BDO Sri Lanka can help and facilitate these foreign investors in Sri Lanka whereby the BDO network can help them with the relevant international aspects of such investments.”
He added that BDO China has strong connections to many Chinese SOEs and that can help to realise contacts with these companies that either have interest in investing in Sri Lanka because of the One Belt One Road initiative or because of other reasons. “In case Sri Lanka companies or the government is interested in attracting SOEs to invest in Sri Lanka BDO can help in organising the relevant contacts with relevant Chinese SOEs.”