33rd National Conference of Chartered Accountants today

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Chandima Weerakkody (MP) will be the Chief Guest at the inauguration of the 33rd National Conference of Chartered Accountants today at Waters Edge, Battaramulla.

Organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka), the conference, which is one of the most anticipated corporate events in the country, will this year see an impressive foreign participation including Keith Wedlock, President of the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA), which is the largest regional accounting organisation, along with other top CAPA representatives including its Chief Executive.



The foreign guest list will also include Mark Spofforth, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), who is the Guest of Honour at the event. ICAEW is one of the world’s oldest accounting organisations.

The keynote address will be delivered by Adam Sack, Country Manager of International Finance Corporation.

The three-day conference will centre on the inspiring theme ‘Winning: Country, Corporate, Citizen,’ which aims at solving the puzzle of success. The conference, will include two days of technical sessions, and will conclude on 20 October.

This year’s conference will see over 1,000 participations including chartered accountants and business leaders who will be steered by a high profile panel of experts who will discuss and deliberate on the means of overcoming the challenges posed by persistent volatility on the pathway to solving the puzzle of success and ensuring ‘winning’ at a country, corporate and citizen level.

A total of six sessions will be held over a two-day period. Session one on ‘winning economy’ will be presented by Prof. Premachandra Athukorala, Professor of Economics from the Australian National University. The panellists for the first session will include Amal Sanderatne CEO/Director of Frontier Research and Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, former Director (Economy Affairs) of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The second session on ‘winning strategy’ will be presented by Dr. John Viljoen, Managing Director of iedex. The panellists at the session will be Ajay Amalean, Director of MAS Holdings Ltd., and Rohan Pallewatta, Managing Director/CEO of Lanka Harness Company Ltd.

The third session on ‘winning against the odds’ will be presented by Ranjith Fernando, Chairman of United Motors Lanka PLC and will comprise of panellists Rajendra Theagarajah, Managing Director/CEO of Hatton National Bank (HNB), and Naomal Goonewardena, Partner of Nithya Partners.

The fourth session will feature Sanjay Tiwari, Managing Director/CEO of Piramal Glass Ceylon PLC, who will speak on ‘winning attitudes’. The session will feature two panellists comprising of Shakthi Ranatunga, Group Human Resource Director of MAS Holdings Pte. Ltd., and Dilrukshi Kurukulasuriya, General Manager – Human Resources of Diesel and Motor Engineers PLC.

The fifth session will centre around ‘winning image’ and will feature Ranjith Page, Managing Director, CT Holdings and Deputy Chairman of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC as the speaker. The panellists for the fifth session will be Nalaka Godahewa, Chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Nandana Wickramage, Group Director and Head of Marketing and Sales of Ceylon Biscuit Ltd.

The sixth and final session will feature a team of three expert panellists, who will delve in detail on how to be a ‘winning professional accountant’. The panellists will comprise of Reyaz Mihular, Managing Partner of KPMG, Asite Talwatte, Managing Partner of Ernst & Young, and Asoka Pieris, Chief Executive Officer of Singer Sri Lanka.