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Minister hails Indian chartered accountants’ role in UAE economy

ICAI Dubai chapter announces 2023-24 roadmap for sustainable technology

Indian chartered accountants are playing a great role in UAE’s growing economy, Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, said.

The minister was speaking at a conference titled: Bridging the Gap: Health and Wealth, organised by the Dubai Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), which recently completed 40 years in the UAE.

“With more than 3,100 members in ICAI Dubai Chapter who manage 1,550 large businesses in Dubai, are significantly contributing to the growth of our economy,” Al Zeyoudi said. “Chartered accountants, especially Indian chartered accountants, have now become some of the most successful business leaders in the UAE, who are contributing to the growth of our bilateral trade with India that exceeded $49 billion last year. With the signing of the first Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) with India, the two-way trade and investment is going to grow further and I’m sure Indian business community and chartered accountants will play a great role in expanding bilateral economic relations.”

Chartered accountants worldwide comprise 15 institutes with over 1.8 million chartered accountants and students in 190 countries.

ICAI has about 351,000 qualified chartered accountants based in India and abroad and 200,000 article Assistants. Further, there are around 750,000 students enrolled in the chartered accountancy courses offered by the ICAI at the moment.

Currently the ICAI has its presence in 47 countries, with 45 chapters and 33 representative offices across 77 global cities. It has its overseas offices in Dubai and Singapore. Of the 8,000 Indian chartered accountants active in the UAE’s private sector, 1,400 are currently leading businesses as chief financial officers, according to Sunjay Sudhir, Indian ambassador to the UAE.

“8,000-strong Indian chartered accountants form the backbone of the UAE economy and being Indian; I’m proud of it,” Sudhir said. “While more than 4 billion people in the world do not have digital identity, all Indians – more than 1.4 billion Indians now have digital identity. This is the new India. The future is sustainable development, and we are currently heading towards that direction,” he said.

“We are accelerating our efforts towards a clean and green society. Climate change and global warming can’t be dealt by governments only, it needs individuals to contribute. We have achieved the target of having 40 percent of the energy from non-fossil fuel sources, 9 years ahead of the target.”

The Dubai Chapter of the ICAI has planned a roadmap for growth in 2023-24 with sustainable technology through innovation at its heart.

Announcing the new roadmap, Harikishan Rankawat, the newly-elected chairman of the new Executive Committee of ICAI Dubai Chapter said, his organisation has lined up several impactful events in line with the theme of the Year of Sustainability – which is being observed throughout the UAE in 2023. “As you all would be aware that the President, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has declared the theme ‘Sustainability’ for the year 2023. So I also decided to use the same theme for the year “Sustech through Innovation” which means sustainable technologies to be deployed by innovating new ideas. During the year, we will be focussing on sustainability, technology and innovation. Today, we are announcing a new roadmap for the next one year. ICAI will organise more than 40 events, including four conferences including one on sustainability.

Jai Prakash Agarwal, Secretary of the ICAI Dubai Chapter, said: “Sustainable technology through innovative ideas is the future ahead. To ensure a beautiful world with availability of all necessary resources is handed over to our future generation, we need to innovate and adapt sustainability. Else our actions will be questioned by our future generation. Therefore, Sustech through Innovation is the only way ahead and as ICAI Dubai Chapter, we adapt this theme for the year 2023-24.”