New professional accounting centre at UiTM to produce more Bumiputera accountants

The Malaysian government is setting up a professional accounting centre at Universiti Teknologi Mara to increase the number of professional Bumiputera accountants to 25 per cent by 2020 from the current 8 per cent or 1,554 accountants.

The number of Bumiputera graduates pursuing accounting at the tertiary level was 7,363 (64%), of the total 11,660 nationwide.

The centre would offer four professional accounting studies under the following:

• Institute of Chartered Accounts in England and Wales (ICAEW)
• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• Certified Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
• Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA)

“We also discussed the anomaly of accountancy graduates getting higher salaries than those with professional certifications,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said, adding that in the government, those with a degree in accounting were paid more than accountants with professional qualifications.