Deloitte prepares clients for coming launch of AEC
Deloitte Southeast Asia is pooling its worldwide resources to help clients cope with the threats and opportunities arising from the full implementation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
Deloitte Thailand yesterday hosted a meeting of its Southeast Asian partners in Bangkok to identify strategies for advising clients and to consider what adjustments would be necessary to serve the business requirements and targets in Asean member countries. The organisation aims to provide services in various areas, including auditing, tax and legal, risk management, management consulting and financial advisory.
"Now that all Asean countries are closely cooperating in preparation for the AEC, Thailand's private sector and leading entrepreneurs will see many benefits, including possible expansion into new markets in Southeast Asia. As a part of Deloitte SEA, Deloitte Thailand is working hard to prepare, along with our clients. Deloitte's main focus is to pool all knowledge and expertise available in the region so as to serve our clients' expansion and tackle any emerging challenges in the very near future," said Subhasakdi Krishnamra, the managing partner of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Jaiyos, or Deloitte Thailand.
With the launch of the AEC, Asean is expected to open up to freer movement of people, products and capital.
To Subhasakdi, this is both an opportunity and a challenge. First of all, the free market will bring more competitors into the Thai market. This will likely be witnessed in several business sectors, including information technology, finance, energy, production and logistics as well as healthcare. But he said Deloitte is ready to help clients deal with both domestic and international conditions.
Chaly Mah, the chief executive officer of Deloitte SEA and Deloitte Asia Pacific, said that in contrast to the pessimistic outlook for the world economy, the Asean community will promote new products, services and investment within the region.
"We do believe that Deloitte will be able to give advice to clients and help them get prepared for the AEC 2015 in terms of accounting, tax advisory, risk management, business strategy and financial advisory. We are also keen on identifying potential opportunities for our clients, while helping them mitigate any possible risks. In short, we know how to enable the clients to turn challenges into opportunities," he said.
Deloitte operates 22 offices in Southeast Asia across eight countries and territories - Brunei, Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand - with 230 partners and over 5,300 employees.
It has operated in Thailand for 72 years.
