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The accountancy profession in Singapore has been challenged by a business environment which has a renewed focus on corporate governance. A stricter regulatory system is in place and firms are also promoting the importance of high-quality work. Tina Peswani reports on a recovering profession
This year's WAI Singapore survey reveals growth of 11 percent on total revenue of S$1 million ($618,473), showing business for firms is picking up.
Kon Yin Tong, managing partner at Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton, comments: "The buoyant local and regional economies have helped in business. As a result, we are now working much more closely with Grant Thornton firms regionally to promote our brand, compared to a few years ago."
Competition for work is immense so firms are looking at different ways to get ahead. In January 2006, RSM Chio Lim Stone Forest (CLSF) switched its international affiliation from Horwath International to RSM International because of a difference of opinion over the network's updated strategic plan and the process by which international referrals were dealt with (see issue 381).
Chio Kian Huat, senior partner at CLSF, says the firm is taking advantage of its new affiliation. "We are working with RSM offices to sell Singapore as a tax-efficient country to base investment holding companies and in the process, attract foreign companies to locate their holding companies...