CMAs to innovate and drive value

CMA, the national professional management accounting institute, will have its annual flagship Management Accountants Conference on 2, 3 and 4 June 2011 at the Taj Samudra Colombo.

In the aftermath of the second CMA Global Summit 2010 Colombo, CMA is surging forward with representatives from recognised international accounting bodies uniting once again to speak at this annual management accounting event of 2011.

Thursday 2 June is the inauguration of this prestigious event. The Chief Guest will be Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Senior Minister of International Monetary Cooperation. The keynote address will be made by Ajith Nivard Cabral, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Guest Speaker will be the President of the South Asian Federation of Accountants A.N. Raman, whilst The CMA Business Excellence Awards and the CMA Academic Excellence Awards will be presented at this forum.

On Friday 3 June, technical sessions will be on ‘Sustainable Value Creation’ by Ronnie Peiris, Finance Director of John Keells Holdings, Aruni Rajakariar, Country Manager of ACCA Sri Lanka and Parveen Mahmud, President of ICA Bangladesh. This session will be chaired by Hemaka Amarasuriya Chairman of Singer. The keynote address will be made by Ajith Nivard Cabral, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

This session will be followed by ‘Corporate Performance Management and Capital Market’ by P. Thiruvengadam of Deloittes India, Dinesh Weerakkody, MD of Cornucopia Lanka and Hasitha Premarathne, CFO of Brandix Lanka. They will cover the topics of activity based costing, flexible remuneration and the capital market.

Session three will be on ‘Strategic Risk Management and Corporate Governance Strategic Risks’. This will be presented by D.S.W. Andradi, Partner of SJMS Associates, Abdul Kalam Mazumdar, Council Member of ICMA Bangladesh and Dr. Harsha Cabraal, President’s Counsel. This session would cover risk management, exploiting the upside and implications of corporate governance on the corporate world.

The final session will be on ‘Contemporary Management Accounting’. Papers will be presented by Iresha Somarathna, of Brandix Lanka Ltd., Mohamed Hanif Ajari, Vice President of ICMA Pakistan and Jayampathy Molligoda, Director Strategic Planning of Bogawantalawa Tea Estates

This session will include the topics of carbon credit accounting, leveraging supply chain to corporate finance and management accounting for the plantation sector.

On Saturday 4 June technical sessions will commence with ‘Establishing a Globally Competitive Programme for Management Accountants’. Papers will be presented by Desley Ward, Manager of CPA Australia, Prof. Mangala Fonseka, Nuwan Gunarathna, Accounting Dept of the Univ. of Sri Jayewardenepura and Philippa Riley, Director of BPP Ltd, UK.

The ensuing panel discussion with be with representatives of ICWA India, ICMA Pakistan, ICMA Bangladesh, CMA Sri Lanka, CMA Australia and BPP UK.

This session would focus education and practical experience will build a globally competitive designation for the accounting profession, the CMA management accounting curriculum, and the role of educational institutes.

Session 2 will be on ‘Diversified Roles of Management Accountants’. Papers will be presented by Sanath Fernando, Partner of E&Y, Hassan Bilgrami, President of ICMA Pakistan and N. Gajendran, Partner of Gajma & Co. The session will cover the topics of international financial reporting standards, Islamic banking and tax planning strategies.

The next session will be on ‘Value Added IT Services’. Papers will be by Dushan Soza, MD of WNS Global Services (Pvt.) Ltd., M.N. Rao, MD of TATA Business Support Services Ltd. and Ramesh Shanmuganathan, Executive Vice President/Group CIO of John Keells Holdings Plc. The topics of KPO in driving value addition, shared services concept and cloud computing will be covered.

The sessions will culminate with a panel discussion with top business personalities on ‘Innovating and Driving Value to Business – Experiences of Business Leaders’ – panel discussion. Moderated by Prof. Uditha Liyanage, Director PIM, the business leaders will be Shiron Guneratne, CFO of SLT, Suren Amarasekera, CEO of Mobitel, Preethi Jayawardene, MD of Chemanex, Suresh Kumar, MD of Lanka IOC, Rajan Britto, MD of Aitken Spence & Co. Plc, Anil Amarasuriya, Director/CEO of Union Bank, Rohit Kosla, General Manager Taj Samudra and Dr. Mahesha Ranasoma, MD of Dipped Products Plc.

The panel discussion will discuss the experiences of business leaders in adding value/wealth to an organisation relating to the following perspectives: Customers, collaborators/stakeholders, suppliers, employees, operations including supply chain management, community and environment.

The CMA conference will have eminent speakers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Australia, UK and leading management accountants and business leaders in Sri Lanka.

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) of Sri Lanka was set up in 1999 with Technical Assistance of CMA Canada. CMA was incorporated by Parliament Act No. 23 of 2009 in April 2009 and is the national professional management accounting institution in Sri Lanka.

Since its inception, CMA has steadily progressed to an institute comprising over 12,000 students and 2,000 members. CMA promotes and develops the study of management accounting and financial accounting and conducts the Certified Management Accounting Programme leading to a professional management accounting qualification.