China needs 300,000 accountants and the demand keeps rising
CHINA'S ECONOMIC development may be going at breakneck speed, but a lack of trained accountants threatens to undermine growth. The Big Four - PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young - are striving to keep pace with this growth but are finding recruitment is one of their main challenges.
China's need for accountants is nothing new. Solutions to the problem have been in different stages of development for about 10 years. Unfortunately, progress has been slow. It is estimated that more than 300,000 accountants are needed countrywide.
The Chinese government made an attempt to address the problem with the opening of the Shanghai National Accounting Institute in 2001, and since then sister institutes have been set up in Beijing and Xiamen.
But these institutes can deliver only a limited number of graduates each year. Also, the institute's examinations are notoriously difficult, which does not help with recruitment, according to accountancy firms.
'It's an important qualification, but the pass rate is very low,' said Dave McCann, human resources partner at PwC.