CA Sri Lanka takes lead to unite local accountancy bodies to help address COVID-19 challenges

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) has played the lead role in bringing together the country’s professional accounting organisations to collaborate on an important initiative aimed at showcasing the crucial role the accountancy profession must play amidst the COVID-19 challenges. 

CA Sri Lanka, together with the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) organised a series of webinars which highlighted the pertinent role the accountancy profession can play to support policy makers, businesses, and accounting professionals to mitigate the economic crisis following the global pandemic, the institute said in a media release. 

The webinars which featured a total of five thought provoking sessions, engaging five speakers and 25 panellists, helped hundreds of participants enhance their knowledge on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and how the accounting and finance profession can play a more essential role in supporting businesses and industries which have been worst affected by the pandemic and the global shutdown.

The webinars focused on multiple areas including the changing dynamics of the accountancy profession in the current economic climate as well as how SMEs can add value to small businesses post COVID-19. The seminars also focused on the financial risk management check list for SMEs and the need to think out of the box as well as reinvent and digitalise, were some of the other areas the series paid attention to. The series was also an important platform to help SMEs provide relevant support to upskill their staff in relation to their agility to adjust, innovate and manage the rapidly evolving situation. 

The five speakers who spearheaded the webinars were Manil Jayesinghe, President of CA Sri Lanka; Ruchira Perera, Council Member of CMA Sri Lanka; Nandika Buddhipala, Vice Chairman, Member Network Panel, ACCA Sri Lanka and CFO of Commercial Bank of Ceylon; Tevilyan Yudhistira Rusli, CFO of PT Lippo Karawaci TBK and PT Lippo Cikarang TBK, Indonesia and Dr. Chamara Bandara, Founder/ Consulting Entrepreneur of SCB Corporate Doctors Pvt Ltd. 

During the series, the accounting bodies also addressed areas relevant to their membership including the need for engagement with regulators as well as the increasing need to identify long-term opportunities to ensure businesses and the profession will continue to remain successful under the new normal in a post COVID-19 scenario.