ICASL to kick off its Chartered Accountants’ Week with a line-up of high profile events

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (ICASL) will kick off its Chartered Accountants Week from Monday, 25 October, 2010. The week is being held to coincide with the Institute’s highly acclaimed three-day National Conference.

A range of eventful activities have been lined up including a CEOs breakfast forum and seminars covering the entire week, which will conclude on 30 October with the ICA National Conference.

ICASL will utilise the Chartered Accountants’ Week as a platform to offer its members more opportunities to strengthen their knowledge on corporate activities and current trends in the field of accountancy and general economic development in the country.

25 October

The Chartered Accountants Week will kick off on 25 October with an orientation programme for new trainees scheduled to be held at the ICASL Auditorium.  M. J. S. Rajakariar — Group Financial Controller of John Keells Holdings Plc and Maheshi Premasinghe — Immediate Past President, CIMA Toastmasters will make presentations at the event.

This will be followed by a fellowship dinner organised for joint members of the ICASL and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) who are residing in Sri Lanka and key employers in the country where matters pertaining to the professional enhancement of all accountancy professionals attached to the two institutes will be discussed. ICAEWs Head of New Business Opportunities, Justin West will be the Chief Guest at the fellowship dinner scheduled to be held at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo.

26 October

The Institute has organised a seminar in association with the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) at the ICASL Auditorium scheduled for 26 October on the theme ‘Is our Stock Market overheated?’ The seminar will see a panel of highly resourceful personnel including Ravi Abeysuriya, CEO, Heraymila Securities Ltd.; Ray Abeywardena, Group CEO, Acuity Partners (Pvt) Ltd.; Channa de Silva, Managing Director, LR Global Lanka Asset Mgt.; P.P.J. Perera, Senior Deputy General Manager, SLIC; Amal Sandaratne, Director, Frontier Research; and Chitra Sathkumara, CEO/Executive Director, Ceybank Asset Management (Pvt) Ltd.

27 October

In the week long line-up is also a high-level CEOs’ Breakfast Forum scheduled for

27 October at the Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo. The Keynote Speaker for this event will be Donald LaGuardia. Founder/partner of US based Logan Rockefeller Global in New York. LaGuardia will centre his speech on the theme Investing in Frontier Markets.

The Institute will also hold its Award Ceremony for Intermediate Certificates and Prize Winners on 27 October, 2010 at the ICASL Auditorium. ICASL Past President Yohan Perera will be the Chief Guest at the event.

28-30 October

The Chartered Accountants week will conclude with the most looked forward to 31st ICA National Conference that will navigate on the theme — The world see opportunity in Sri Lanka. The conference will be ceremonially inaugurated on 28 October at 6 p.m. at Waters Edge, Battaramulla. US Ambassador Patricia Butenis will grace the inauguration as the Guest of Honour, where the Keynote Speaker will be Attorney General of Sri Lanka Mohan Peiris.

The two-day technical sessions will feature 6 highly acclaimed, local and foreign paper presenters. Each session will be complemented with a panel discussion that will host a mix of local and foreign experts in the respective areas. This year too, the conference is geared to attract over 1000 participants.

The National Conference not only brings together knowledge, expertise and experiences of high profile speakers; but also serves as an opportunity for networking and fellowship. A special feature of this year’s conference is the ‘Presidents Cocktail’ that will conclude the first day of technical sessions on 29 October. The institute believes that it will add on to the overall experience of the participants allowing them to mix and mingle with one another. The Chartered Accountants Week will come to an end with the half-a-day technical session on Saturday, 30 October.