From the divisional director
In the past two years we have be concentrating our efforts on communicating the CIMA differentiation, to enable the public, employers, tertiary students and potential students to understand what management accountancy is and how our members differ from other accountants. This message has received good feedback especially from two groups; financial accountants wanting to expand their career horizons into other roles, and aspiring senior managers who would like to be more financially literate in-order to excel their career.
On a personal front this year been a very rewarding experience. I have been able to see how CIMA is able to help people’s careers not only upwards but also sideways. Members and students are moving into roles where the skill set learnt in the CIMA training equips them with the knowledge they need. CIMA is regarded as one of the most relevant to business qualifications as we update the syllabus every four years with feedback from over 2,000 employers. This reflects how our qualification trains people to go beyond accountancy and we now truly occupy the space where business and finance meet.
To facilitate these groups of prospective students, in 2010 we introduce a special gateway assessment designed to assess MBA graduates and members of other accounting bodies for direct entrance into the strategic level papers. The assessment looks at different areas taken from the operational and managerial level and serves as a safeguard to ensure that the students will be able to pass the final papers. We are grateful to Hong Kong University SPACE, our partners who have designed a preparatory course for these students to aid their studies. In the coming years we will expect to see more students joining CIMA via these routes.
Hong Kong has continued to shine within CIMA. Our student Amit Chhabra from Johnson Electric scored the highest mark globally in the gateway assessment. Alan Wong from Jardine Matheson came third globally in the performance strategy paper and Richard Bellingham came sixth globally in the financial operations paper. In general the passing marks for the operational and managerial papers in Hong Kong have been higher than the global average for the second year running. This has been achieved by not only attracting students that are capable but also the additional student support resources that have been invested in
the past few years. In the CIMA Global Business Challenge where over 2,000 groups of international university students compete in a business case study, the Hong Kong team won the accolade for the second year running, demonstrating again that the territory is producing some of the finest financial leaders in the world. Lastly, I would also like to thank the divisional council for their direction and my devoted team in Hong Kong for all their enthusiasm and hard work in delivering the excellent services to all our stakeholders.
Damian Yip Divisional Director, Hong Kong
CIMA Hong Kong Annual Review 2010
Divisional director’s statement
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