Exploratory Goodwill Tour

During the last few months Dr Chris D’Souza embarked on an exploratory goodwill tour to visit countries that are underrepresented in terms of ICMA members to talk to universities about embedding the CMA program within their Master degree programs, and also to investigate the potential of opening Regional Centres in those countries. He was assisted by the Australian Trade Commission and Australian Embassy officials in those countries. We are happy to announce that pursuant to these efforts we have made significant progress in many of these countries and are in the process of signing MOU’s with important institutions and partners in these countries.

South Korea

The first country he visited was South Korea where he first met with Rodney Commerford Australian Trade Commissioner, Sam Baker, Secretary (Economic) at the Embassy and Emily Chung Education Manager Austrade. They discussed the potential for ICMA in South Korea and possible roadblocks ahead. He also met with the Manager of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Seoul – Rowan Petz and discussed a proposal of how ICMA could work with Austcham in Seoul in achieving its objectives.

Japan

ICMA then crossed the Sea of Japan and had discussions with Austrade at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo. He met Scott Morriss the Australian Trade Commissioner assisted by Ms Tomoko Ichikawa and George Manetakis, the Education Manager. They provided a comprehensive market briefing on the Japanese Education sector and discussed best ways for ICMA to break into this market.

Thailand

Another country where ICMA is underrepresented is Thailand and in recent months we have made significant progress here. Here again we started with a market briefing from Austrade led by the Susan Kahwati the Senior Trade Commissioner & Minister-Counsellor (Commercial) and Busarin Sinthunavarat the Education Manager, Bangkok and ASEAN Education Team.

They organised meetings for ICMA with Assumption University who have in principle agreed to collaborate with us.

 

The meeting at Assumption University was attended by Busarin from Austrade and Dr. Witsaroot Pariyaprasert, Director of Assumptions MBA program and Dr Rawin Vongurai Director of at the Graduate School of Business.

Another fruitful meeting was with AustCham Thailand President Mr Brenton Mauriello, who runs a successful business in Thailand. We benefited greatly from his advice on the Thai culture and market conditions.

Brenton in turn introduced Dr Chris to a long-term Australian living in Thailand for over 30 years – David Bell who has extensive experience in running leadership training courses in Thailand.

ICMA Australia was also pleased to welcome the General Manager of Mitsubishi in Thailand, Mr. Yoichiro Ogihara. Impressed with the CMA Program that Mr. Yoichiro Ogihara attended in Jakarta he signed up as a member for 5 years. We are also exploring opening up CMA office in Japan.

India

From Thailand he crossed the Indian Ocean to the South Indian State of Karnataka where ICMA is planning to hold a CMA Program in the first week of October in Bengaluru (Bangalore). ICMA has signed an MOU with the prestigious St. Joseph’s Institute of Management and is in the process of collaborating with St Joseph’s College as well. Dr Chris also held extensive discussion with the Manipal Group in Manipal as well as Manipal Global Education in Bengaluru. ICMA looks forward to great progress in the coming days in this important market.

About Prof Janek Ratnatunga 1129 Articles
Professor Janek Ratnatunga is CEO of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants. He has held appointments at the University of Melbourne, Monash University and the Australian National University in Australia; and the Universities of Washington, Richmond and Rhode Island in the USA. Prior to his academic career he worked with KPMG.