National Conference of Chartered Accountants kicks off

Sri Lanka’s largest business summit, the National Conference of Chartered Accountants, was inaugurated yesterday in the presence of the country’s corporate glitterati comprising of top business leaders, decision makers, accounting and finance professionals as well as diplomats.

The annual conference, organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka), was inaugurated by the chief guest, National Policy and Economic Affairs Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva and the keynote speaker was CG Corp Global Chairman Dr. Binod K. Chaudhary, who is the only Forbes-listed billionaire from Nepal. 

This year too, the conference received overwhelming response with over 1800 delegates registering for the flagship event at the BMICH, setting an all-time new record of the annual event. 

The three-day conference, which will revolve around ‘Dynamism: Agility in Leadership’, will conclude on October 27, 2017, after two days of technical sessions featuring local and international speakers. 
Delivering the keynote speech on agile leadership, Dr. Chaudhary, a well-known businessman, industrialist and philanthropist, shared his personal experience to the top, including how despite the many uncertainties both business and life brought about, one can always manage them by anticipating change and adapting oneself accordingly. 

He also urged the high-profile audience to embrace agility when doing business. 
“The more swiftly you act, the more likely you are to survive and prosper. We need to be agile enough – both to grab the opportunity and pre-empt any possibility of damage. We have to remember that time is very powerful and it is always in favour of change,” Dr. Chaudhary said.

CA Sri Lanka President Lasantha Wickremasinghe speaking at the event said that everyone must understand that without embracing change, Sri Lanka can’t move forward as a country. 

“To survive in this ever evolving world, we need to embrace change and for that we need leaders who are willing to be agile and also dynamic,” he said. 

He further noted that even though Sri Lanka is a small nation, it has great potential to become a global player due to its strategic location in the world map. But, he pointed out that this will not happen just by rhetoric pledges. 

“We need leadership with proper vision to reach this goal. Moreover, we cannot also only expect our government and policymakers to drive our country forward. As professionals, we too have a collective responsibility to help achieve this target,” he said.

He also urged business leaders and professionals to move away from traditional and archaic methods of doing business because the businesses that didn’t evolve over time no longer can stake claim of being successful. 

“We all know success can never be permanent and success can be short lived if the vision of the leadership is short. This is why it’s important to encourage agility across the broader spectrum, be it at a national level or corporate level and across both the public and private sectors,” he added.