Malaysia needs to double its accountants to 60,000 in an effort to support its transformation into a developed nation by 2020, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said. He said accountancy is one of the key areas where the country is significantly under-served and the public and private sectors need to ensure that the demand driven by Malaysia’s steady and strong growth is met. There are currently about 30,000 accountancy professionals in Malaysia, of which 28 per cent are registered chartered accountants. Urging more accounting graduates to pursue professional accounting qualifications, he said: “The government’s efforts to produce industry-relevant graduates is to ensure that our young Malaysian talents are able to access the high-income opportunities arising from our economic transformation. “Upskilling our graduates with industry recognised professional qualifications will help our Malaysian talents realise their potential,” he said.

British Council commentary:

The Malaysian government has been striving to identify industry demand, and to produce industry-relevant graduates, as part of the initiatives to support the Vision 2020 aspiration to become a high-income nation. Although there is a steady stream of accounting students, there is a clear shortage of professional and chartered accountants. However, this is not only the case in Malaysia, with a global shortage of accountants. A related issue is also talent retention, with Malaysian graduates working in other countries. The supply of accounting professionals is therefore three-fold, i.e. to produce more accounting graduates, to encourage accounting graduates to pursue professional accounting qualifications, and also to retain as well as lure back local talent from overseas. This would suggest that Malaysian students studying accounting at UK universities should face excellent employment prospects upon their return.

According to HESA statistics, since 2002 accounting has remained as one of the top ten favourite subjects among Malaysia students to study in the UK. For 2013/14 accounting was listed no 7 among all subjects, and the number of student enrolments has been increasing steadily since 2010/11 onwards.