“Pakistan’s overall accounting services are better than its regional competitors and we are trying to market the country as the preferred destination for global accounting and financial companies for outsourcing,” Aslam told The Express Tribune.
Currently, the project, in its pilot phase, will enable job creation for around 60 accountants in Lahore for a single job. Each quarter, the company has been outsourcing a couple of jobs to Pakistan that can sometimes create jobs for around 300 accountants.
“The global finance outsourcing market size is around $35 billion, which is undergoing double-digit growth of around 12% annually. If Pakistan succeeds in getting a share of 10% out of the total, it will help in the creation of around 100,000 accounting jobs with a services export volume of $3 billion in the next five years”, Aslam said.
ACCA, the global body for professional accountants, offers business-relevant qualifications around the world. It currently has 170,000 members and 436,000 students in 180 countries, helping them to successful careers in accounting and business. The body works through a network of 91 offices and centres and employs over 8,500 people worldwide.
Interestingly, Pakistani accountants are in demand especially in Europe. The model of ACCA, based mainly in the UK, is implemented in Pakistan as well. However, any shortcoming is met by training the students in real-time working environment that boosts their exposure as well.
The confidence shown by Azure Global is an example that Pakistanis are not just required for basic, data-entry positions. Azure Global processes transactions from Pakistan and send them back to their clients, said Aslam. “It’s like a wholesale business setting in the UK by which local people outsource to Pakistan.”
The jobs are of high-end including financial compliance and tax issues. He said that Azure Global had decided to move its business from Pakistan to eastern Europe, feeling a shortage of professional accountants. “However, we invited them and presented Pakistan’s case that led to a reversal of the decision. This shows the confidence Azure has in Pakistan now.”
Lower wages in Pakistan, without compromising too much on quality, is another reason why Pakistan has become a preferred choice. According to Aslam, a professional accountant in Europe demands between £150-200 per hour. In Pakistan, however, the same job is for between £25-30 pounds per hour.
“We are trying to make it a concentrated effort to consolidate this business so the cost of doing business goes lower. The outsourcing will boost confidence. If we hit a critical figure of 10,000 jobs by making more efforts, then we can achieve the figure of $3 billion in the next five years.”
But to achieve the target, a concentrated effort will be needed. As the pie gets bigger, it will create an opportunity not only for ACCA but for other accounting bodies of Pakistan including Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan. “All stakeholders should play their role. If there is a proper eco system of IT and telecom sector added with favourable policies as per global requirements, then the growth will be phenomenal.”
“We are pushing the telecom companies to establish an eco system from where financial companies may get a hassle free environment.”
Aslam said that despite 99% of ACCA members being employed, there still exists a dearth of accountants in Pakistan. Giving numbers, he said that Pakistan is producing around 15,000-16,000 accounting professionals per year where as the demand hovers around 40,000. Our of a total of 2.7 million students enrolled in all disciplines in Pakistan, only 40,000 opt for accounting and less than half reach the professional level, he added.
Given that there is room for growth, there is potential that Pakistan can definitely tap into.
The writer is a staff correspondent
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2014.
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Great initiative indeed. Its high time that Pakistan is presented as having one of the talented pool of Professional Accountants in the world.
Indeed, India is far ahead from PK in terms of IT infrastructure but it does not mean Pak anyhow lacks sizeable potential to compete India.
There is a benefit for large portfolio ACCA members in Pk as opposed to India which is UK qualification and offers a much bigger quality product. In India local and domestic industry itself is quite large to absorb emplyees and locally qualified ACCAa/CAs/MBAs.
I will suggest NZ and SS rather distributing out laptops just have licenses of SAP and Oracle for virtual software IT park and offer free application and database facililty to BPOs which agree to set up in Pk for 7-10 years time horizon. Will see companies getting crazy.......................
Yes there are communication issues for people living in sub-continent when it comes to communication to the English people which points to have basic/elementary
@GKA: Here I am talking about quality and not about the quantity of accounting professionals churned out from India and Pakistan, the IFAC president was saying the same thing. India has a population of 1.24 billion compared to 180 million for Pakistan.
@N.Siddiqui: Come on ! You are quoting a statement made in Feb 2006 !!! And an IFAC president who starts comparing neighboring countries and judging. superiority of one over the other needs to be fired. What kind of a President is that ? How can he be a leader of an international organization? it is something like the Gen Secy of the UN saying Pakistan has a better foreign service than India. He will be immediately censured regardless of whether he is wrong or right.
I will not belittle the Pakistan service industry. I am sure you guys are doing great work. But I take exception to random comments made to create a false aura of superiority. Musharraff did the same 10 years ago - he said Pakistanis spoke better english than India so Pakistan BPOs would do better than India and launched some plan . 10 years on the facts speak for themselves.
Shell is larger in Pakistan than it is in India yet it chose India to make its accounting hub. It is not just about professional excellence that made this happen (or made the software industry of India where it is today). It is about a climate where the MNC client can be assured of high quality of service, without issues of business continuity and compromises in data integrity and privacy.
Great Job Sajeed.
I closely work with Outsourced business partners and this opportunity is great as UK will value the services by ACCA and ACA Pak.
Indeed this model as it grows will bring more work back to Pakistan and lot of opportunities for Pakistanies to relocate to Europe and USA.
There is also huge demand within areas of Taxation under HMRC which ACCA can leverage on.
Regards, Kamran
@GKA: This is what president of IFAC has said about Pakistan CA professionals. President International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) Graham Ward on Thursday said that Pakistan has done well in the chartered accounting profession compared to India, adding though India is a vast country with more than one billion people, its standard in chartered accounting is far below to that of Pakistan.
He and IFAC chief executive Ian Ball are visiting Pakistan to attend a two-day conference on "The Role of IFAC in Restoring Public Confidence in the Accounting Profession". The conference was organised by the Institute of chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) in a local hotel on February 1.
Business Recorder talked to Ward and Ball on the concluding day of the conference to get their ideas about the conference, its purpose and general notion of these two stalwarts from the world of accounting about the accounting profession in this part of the world.
Ward has more than 30 years of experience in the accountancy profession and has served various professional institutions of repute. Ian Ball has a long association with the accountancy profession. He has a Ph.D in Local Government Finance and Administration from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Currently, he is a professor of Accounting and Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
You said "Pakistan’s overall accounting services are better than its regional competitors". Really ? India has a much larger base of multinationals with the latest in audit techniques and risk based auditing. Major multinationals like Shell have huge accounting hubs in India - Shell has 1000 people on accounting there. Would a multinational trust an entity in Pakistan with its detailed accounting information which would require access to its corporate IT networks etc ? What if a radicalized person tried to enter the IT system and play havoc ? US$ 3 bln is not possible. However US$ 300 mln may be possible - there is always some part of the low end of the market that you can sell on pure price advanatge without quallity considerations.
@Israr:
Not happy with the job? Find some other company. You are not working in EU. You are working in Pakistan where every other job is like this, except for Government jobs.
In UK if the same work is done by an internee and he is supposed to work over-time or on weekend he would get paid more. Whereas @ Azure Global the work ethics is pathetic where they make sit for late and on weekends without due (let alone fair) compensation. They epitomize corporate manipulation in a market where cheap resources are available.