British body proves a hit in mainland

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has seen a marked rise in the number of mainland members in recent years.

The British accounting body has experienced an average annual growth rate of 50 per cent in China in the past three years, with student memberships up an average 40 per cent. There are now 12,000 ACCA students and about 1,200 members in the mainland. ACCA was set up in the mainland in 1990.

Victor Ng, the president of the Hong Kong office of ACCA, who is also a Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu partner, said the popularity of the ACCA programme in China indicated the growing connections between the mainland's economy and the rest of the world.

The British accounting body's accreditation did not qualify a person to practise as an accountant in China but was an internationally recognised qualification, he said.

'Mainland accountants who work for multinational firms in China need to acquire an overseas qualification and the ACCA can help them achieve this goal,' Mr Ng said.