Singapore as an Accountancy Hub – A Porter’s Diamond Perspective

Tan Boon Seng

Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants

Ho Yew Kee
Department of Accounting, NUS Business School
National University of Singapore

4 May 2015

Abstract

Using the framework of the Porter’s Diamond, we examine the Committee to Develop the
Accountancy Sector (CDAS) report, which outlines the vision for Singapore to be a leading
accountancy hub. The application of the Porter’s framework provides clarity on the connectivity of
the strategic thrusts for strategy formulations and implementations. There are two strategic thrusts
which address the levers for strategy formulation and one strategic thrust which addresses the
levers for strategy implementation. The analysis shows that Singapore is strong in almost all four
attributes of the Porter’s Diamond. The CDAS report is an important policy blueprint to enhance
these attributes via suitable strategic levers. It is an open question if the targeted GDP share
outlined in the report will be achieved, but the framework shows that Singapore has strong
fundamentals in becoming the accountancy hub in the region over the long run. This paper
contributes to the literature on economic growth and competitiveness by examining a case where
industrial policy can be guided by a framework of competitiveness.

Key Word: Accountancy Hub; Porter Diamond; Committee to Develop the Accountancy Sector;
Sector Competitiveness; Industry Policy
JEL: L53 (Enterprise Policy); L88 (Government Policy, Industry Studies: Service)

* Email: boonseng.tan@gmail.com

This is a preprint version of a paper that is forthcoming in the International Journal of Business
Competition and Growth. The link to the actual paper will be provided when available.

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2602628

 A nation’s industrial policy is the channel for its government to allocate resources to
selected industries (including the service sectors) to improve the industries’ competitiveness. The
objective of industrial policy is to promote economic growth and ultimately to create wealth. This
wealth, which is distributed to labour as wage income and to capital as investment income,
improves the economic welfare of the nation in the long run. At the risk of over-simplification, the
crux of industrial policy is the answers to two questions – what industry to select, and what to do
with the selected industry.

In this paper, we show that the Porter’s Diamond is a suitable framework to examine these
two questions – the selected industry should be strong in the fundamentals and the industry policy
seeks to enhance those fundamentals. We illustrate the application of the framework with the case
of the policy to develop Singapore as an accountancy hub.

The case and criticism for the practice of industrial policy are elaborated in Rodrik (2009). In
a nut shell, the theoretical argument for industrial policy is market failure such as externalities (in
knowledge and innovation), large capital requirement and immature institutions and so on. The
criticism is ‘government failure’ in practice: bureaucratic routine and powerful lobbying, rather than
economic logic, determines policy on the ground. Empirically, failed industrial policy includes Latin
America’s import substitution industrialization and successful ones include East Asia’s export
oriented policy. Developed economies have a long history of industrial policy. Hence, despite
criticism of industrial policy in practice, it is a given policy instrument for government to promote
economic growth and sector competitiveness. This paper contributes to the literature on economic
growth and competitiveness by examining a case where industrial policy can be guided by a
competitiveness framework.

The paper proceeds as follows: We begin with a summary of the policy report to develop
Singapore as an accounting hub – The Committee to Develop the Accountancy Sector (CDAS) Report
– to provide the context. Next, we review the Porter’s Diamond framework, followed by a short
description of Singapore’s economic history. We then apply the Diamond framework on the policy
and summarize the key points in the conclusion.

1. The CDAS Report

The CDAS report outlines its vision for Singapore to be a leading accountancy hub for the
Asia-Pacific by 2020. In its report to the Singapore government (CDAS, 2010), the articulated vision1
is to grow the accountancy sector’s contribution to Singapore’s GDP from 0.4% to 1%2 by 2020 with
the export component growing from 22% to 50%.

The report proposes ten recommendations to achieve its vision and these recommendations
can be organized into three strategic thrusts. This paper uses the Porter’s diamond framework to
examine how the CDAS recommendations seek to move the levers of competitiveness to realize the

1
The strategic management literature would have called this a mission – which is specific in target and timeline
– rather than a vision, which is more descriptive.
2
The current sector’s GDP contribution for UK and Australia is approximately 1%.

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2602628

vision. The framework uses the Singapore’s unique economic history as a context to discuss the
strategies promulgation.

The ten recommendations are arranged into the following three strategic thrusts3:

Strategic Thrust I: Strengthen Accountancy Education and Research

R1. Establish the Singapore Qualification Program (SQP) for accountants

R2. Establish specialization pathways through value enhancement in specializations like Internal
Audit, Risk Management, Business Valuation, Taxation and professional development for Chief
Financial Officers (CFOs) through certifications, qualifications and competency frameworks
R3. Establish the Accountancy Service Research Centre (ASRC) to enhance applied accounting
research, focusing on issues relating to technical standards and accountancy services

Strategic Thrust II: Focus on High Value Services

R4. Promote Centre of Excellence in Internal Audit, Risk Management, Business Valuation,
Taxation and professional development for CFOs through fiscal incentives such as grants and
tax concessions
R5. De-regulate in the ownership of public accountancy firm to reduce entry barrier
R6. Upgrade the capability of Small and Medium-sized Practices (SMP) through providing
incentives for technology investment, training and business collaboration
R7. Reduce low value added accounting services like lower the statutory audit exemption
threshold for private firms

Strategic Thrust III: Strengthen the Accountancy Infrastructures and Institutions

R8. Encourage the national accountancy body, the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants
(ISCA) to reposition with a global outlook
R9. Establish the Accountancy Sector Development Fund (ASDF) to incentivise efforts in raising
productivity, building capability and encouraging regionalization
R10. Establish, via legislation, the Singapore Accountancy Council4 (SAC) with formal oversight over
the administration of SQP, ASDF, ASRC and specialization pathways

The three strategic thrusts seem intuitively logical and sensible. However, the use of a
formal framework can provide clarity to the strategic thrusts and recommendations by showing how
they can be connected to achieve the vision. The first two strategic thrusts address the levers for
strategy formulation and the third strategic thrust addresses the levers for strategy implementation.
This paper uses the Porter’s Diamond framework to examine strategy formulation in the context of
Singapore’s economic history and touch on strategy implementation for the third strategic thrust.

3
Although the jargon in strategic management is used, this is a policy report (addressing a sector) rather than
a strategic management paper (addressing a firm).
4
The council is re-designated as the Singapore Accountancy Commission in 2013 as a statutory body under the
Singapore Accountancy Commission Act 2013.

3
2. Porter’s Diamond Model

The Diamond Model of competitiveness (Porter, 1990) is introduced in the book

“Competitive Advantage of Nations” to create a basis – linking strategic management and
international economics – for developing policies on competitiveness. The Diamond Model seeks to
answer the question “Why are some industry sectors in a country more competitive than others in
the context of differentiated product market, technology and economy of scale?” The answers to
the question will result in the development of suitable policies to enhance current competitiveness
of the industry in focus.

Supported by empirical evidence, Porter proposed four inter-connected attributes of

competitiveness as shown in the Porter’s Diamond in Figure 1 below. Two additional exogenous
attributes “luck” and “government” are included in the model, although policy discussion usually
leaves out the “luck” attribute.

Figure 1: The Porter's Diamond

Firm Strategy, Structure and Competition

Factor Conditions Demand Conditions

Luck Related Supplier Industries Government

(Source: Porter (1990) p.127)

The following discusses the attributes of the diamond as show in Figure 1.

a. Demand conditions: Strong competition in the home market pressures firms to innovate and
improve productivity for the purpose of survival, and results in improve long term
competitiveness of the sector.
b. Related Supplier-industries: These industries produce inputs that are important for
innovation and internationalization, and indirectly contribute to the upgrading process of
the industry.
c. Factor conditions: The abundance of high quality factors of production makes this attribute
favourable. Factors of production include human resources, physical resources, knowledge
resources, capital resources and infrastructure. Specialized resources often play an
important role in the competitiveness of a sector. Strength in one resource can compensate
for the lack of other resources.

4
d. Firm strategy, structure and rivalry: The institutional setup and infrastructure in which firms
are created and compete strategically influence the long run competitiveness of the
industry.
e. Government: The government influences each of the above four attributes of
competitiveness by tampering with the supply conditions of key production factors, demand
conditions in the home market, and competition between firms. Policy interventions can
occur at local and international levels.

While the Diamond model cleverly integrates key attributes into a framework, there is a
criticism that the model misses out the importance of multinational activities and reduces its
predictive power. Moon, Rugman and Verbeke (1995) extend the framework and incorporate
multinational activities directly into the attributes. This paper adopts the extended approach in
Moon et. al. (1995).

3. A Short Economic History of Singapore5

Singapore is a young democracy and country as it obtained its independence from Malaya in
1965 having experienced self-rule in 1959 as a British colony. Singapore was a third world country in
the 1960s with a per capita income of US$516 with poor infrastructure and limited capital.
Commerce was primarily confined to low value industries for only domestic consumption and it had
very little foreign investment then. To address the massive unemployment and labour unrest
resulting from poor economic conditions in the 1960s, Singapore embarked upon its industrial
development as the only option to bring it out of poverty. This marks the beginning of the
industrialisation of Singapore that resulted in factories producing goods ranging from textiles, toys,
electronic components, woods, and a whole host of export products which provide jobs and valuable
foreign exchange and direct investment into Singapore.

Economic policy, mediated through institutions such as the Economic Development Board,
plays a crucial to industrialize Singapore. Singapore is the earliest country in the region to
industrialize and pursue an export-led growth strategy. Economic strategy leverages on the
industrialization process to attract foreign direct investment while the government invest local
capital into infrastructure. Singapore encourages multinational firms to base their headquarters here
and then to venture into the region, i.e. the hub strategy.

The per capita GDP in current US dollar was US$516 in 1965 and rose to US$55,182 in 2013.
Figure 2 shows the systematic rise in per capita GDP from 1965 to 2013.

5
The Singapore economic history as recorded by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). See
http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/our-history/1960s.html.

5
 Figure 2: Per Capita GDP in current US Dollar from 1965 to 2013

USD 60,000

USD 50,000

USD 40,000

USD 30,000

USD 20,000

USD 10,000

USD 0
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
Source: The World Bank (http://data.worldbank.org/country/singapore)

Having achieved a high level of per capita GDP, the challenge is to maintain the growth in
the per capita GDP through innovations and systematic restructuring of its industries. The
accountancy sector was identified as one of the potential growth opportunities and the CDAS 2010
report was the result of 16 months of careful facts finding and discussions amongst the many players
involved in this sector. The preamble of the report specifically mentions:

“The Singapore accountancy sector plays an important role in the growth and
development of the Singapore economy, in terms of providing access to professional
accountancy services and talents needed by the different sectors of the economy. While
predominantly catering to domestic demand, the accountancy sector itself is
experiencing strong growth opportunities on the exports of its professional services to
the region. The sector has exhibited double-digit growth on a compound annual growth
rate basis on its exports of professional services to the region since 2000.”6

In the systematic restructuring of the economy, Singapore has adopted the hub concept
where its intention is to re-route the trade routes in a dynamically changing world. The basic
intention is to make Singapore an essential trade hub in which the various trade routes would have
to pass through Singapore. For example, Singapore instituted the biomedical hub, the education
hub, the healthcare hub and numerous other service or trade hubs which concentrate on high value
added and high skill activities.

4. Singapore as an Accountancy Hub for the Asia Pacific

The jargon “accountancy hub” is used but not clearly defined in the CDAS report. The vision
on growing the accountancy sector’s GDP share to 1% by 2020 is obtained from the Data Monitor

6
CDAS 2010, paragraph 1.

6
that refers to the value-add of accounting firms delivering three groups of services, namely, auditing,
tax and advisory services. Accounting firms offering these services can be divided into three groups:
first, the Big-Four (BIG4) – PricewaterhouseCooper, KPMG International, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
and Ernst & Young International, second, the mid-tier accounting practices (MTAPs), and finally,
about 600 small and medium-sized practices (SMPs).

Auditing and tax services are fairly homogeneous with some customizations but advisory
services are heterogeneous and mainly include some combinations of management consulting
(process consulting and information technology consulting), risk management, capital management
(also known as transaction), financial restructuring, sustainability reporting, and forensic accounting.

Accountants dominate the delivery of audit and tax services, but advisory services are
provided by different specialists. Therefore, accounting firms hire not only accountants, but also
finance specialist, business professionals, environmental specialist and others. Many accounting
graduates do not join an accounting firm – instead they become professional accountant in business
(PAIBs) and contribute to the accounting and finance function of businesses. The Institute of
Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA), the professional accounting body in Singapore, has a
membership base of more than 28,000 members with 25% of them are in accounting firms while the
rest are PAIBS. Thus PAIBs – including many successful ones who become Chief Financial Officers
(CFOs) – are the backbone of the accounting profession by their sheer number. However, for the
accountancy hub concept, it would have to exclude the economic contributions of the PAIBs because
their value-add is counted as part of the GDP contribution of businesses. The contributors to the
accountancy hub include professionals other than accountants working in the accounting firms.

We next examine each attribute of the diamond for Singapore’s accountancy sector in 2014
and discuss the relevant CDAS recommendations affecting each attribute.

a. Demand conditions:

The demand for accounting services – auditing, tax and advisory services – arises from doing
business in Singapore and the region. Singapore has a higher level of commercial activities than most
Asia Pacific countries and cities today. Since her founding, Singapore is destined to be a trader due
to its strategic location along trade routes, excellent harbour and British commercial policies in
Singapore. These factors help Singapore developed a sizable entrepot trade which in turn created
demand for trade financing and processing industries.

Investment activities drive the need to develop the capital market beyond trade financing
into a complete assortment of financing (debt and equity), risk and currency management services.
The pro-business environment not only encourages business formation which creates demand for
accountancy services, strong competition in the home market pressure accounting firms to innovate
and improve productivity to survive.

Demand condition is a strongly favourable attribute in the diamond for Singapore. Business
formation not only leads to demand for PAIBs, it also lead to demand for auditing which is the
largest component in the revenue of accounting firms. Investment and operation of businesses give
rise to demand for tax related services, which are mainly provided by accountants. Accounting firms
have competitive advantage to offer advisory services to existing clients due to economies of scope.

7
However, accounting firms may be prohibited from offering certain kind of advisory services to their
clients that may compromise their professional independence.

Recommendation 7 (R7) lowers the threshold for statutory audit exemption for private
firms, and therefore reduces the demand for statutory audit as more firms qualify for exemption.
The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) reported that the number of companies
audited by SMP dropped from over 75,000 in 2004 to about 41,000 in 2007, mainly due to the
introduction of audit exemptions for small businesses (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory
Authority, 2007). However, audit exemption for small firms can increase business formation that
increases the demand for tax and advisory services as accounting firms exit the low-end of audit
services. The demand attribute is mostly influenced by forces exogenous to those discussed in the
CDAS report. R7 dampens the demand for audit services but it can in demand for taxation and
advisory services. It also results in the consolidation of SMPs into MTAPs in order to compete for the
audit services of larger firms.

b. Related supplier-industries:

The key input to the accountancy sector is a large pool of well-trained accountancy
graduates. Other inputs such as capital and material are not critical success factors due to their
abundance relative to the needs of accounting firms.

The key related suppliers are from the education sector. Singapore rates favourably in this
attribute. The city state has a highly educated workforce. It also has a strong reputation for its
academic quality that attracts many foreign students from the region. Its public post-secondary
institutions (universities and polytechnics) are supplemented by vibrant and well-regulated private
education organizations.7 Many accountancy graduates join an accountancy body8 that requires
meeting a minimum requirement in continuing professional education (CPE) to retain their
membership. The requirement of CPE is an important factor for the diffusion of innovation such as
keeping updated on accounting and auditing standards, application of technology such as XBRL,
latest cross-border taxation issues and others.

The need for a more structured post-graduate training that incorporates practical exposure
for young accountants was proposed in the CDAS consultation process to increase the value of the
accounting professionals. This need motivates Recommendation 1 (R1): to establish the Singapore
Qualification Program (SQP) for accountants, which is designed with three special features. First,
SQP allows the entries of non-accountancy graduates into the accountancy profession through a
conversion program which includes both foundation and professional segments.9 Second, the
structured professional program includes modules on ethics, corporate reporting, auditing, valuation
and risk management, tax and a capstone integrated business-strategy module. Hence, the program
enhances and complements the formal training of accountants to increase their value in providing

7 st
Times Higher Education ranked the National University of Singapore as 21 in the world in 2014.
8
The Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants is the national accountancy body, other bodies active in
Singapore include the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Chartered Institute of
Management Accountants (CIMA), CPA Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA);
and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
9
Graduates of accredited accountancy degrees will need only to complete the professional segment of the
SQP.

8
accounting related services. Third, the SQP requires practical training through a formal employment
contract with an accredited training organization and approved mentor.

In the near future, there is plan for reciprocity membership agreements with international
accountancy bodies for holders of SQP qualification. In summary, the SQP is a strategic lever for
strengthening the key input that is important for innovation and internationalization.

c. Factor conditions:

The key production factor is human capital as discussed in the previous attribute on related
supplier-industries. There is a positive feedback loop here – an educated workforce is a pull factor
for investing in accountancy training that emphasizes CPE; CPE is a push factor for a (specialised)
educated workforce. The abundance of high quality human capital makes this attribute favourable.

In a similar way, Recommendation 2 (R2) proposes to establish specialization pathways in

selected areas and Recommendation 4 (R4) to promote Centres of Excellence in the same selected
areas through fiscal incentives can significantly energize this positive feedback loop. R2 produces the
supply of specialized human capital, R3 produces the demand for the human capital, and the supply-
demand interaction is a positive feedback for the specialization in Internal Audit and Risk
Management, Business Valuation, Taxation and professional development of Chief Financial Officers
(CFOs). The successful implementation of the relevant recommendations will increase the
favourability of this attribute, especially in the four selected areas.

d. Firm strategy, structure and rivalry:

As discussed in the opening paragraph of section 3, accounting firms can be divided into
three groups – the Big-Four (BIG4), mid tiers accounting practices (MTAPs) and about 600 small and
medium size practices (SMPs) – delivering a mix of three accountancy related services, namely,
auditing, tax and advisory services. In reviewing firm competition, it is useful to segment the firms by
group and consider the competition in each service. Figure 3 obtained from Key Facts and Trend of
Singapore’s Public Accountants 2008 (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, 2008:23),
serves as a basis for discussion.

9
 Figure 3:: Client and Revenue Mix of Accounting Firms in 2007

Panel A : Client Profile of Accounting Entities Per Segment (in %)

100%
20.0%
34.1% 34.2%
80% 4.6%
1.1% 2.9% 4.3%
7.5% 0.2%
60%

74.3% 43.2%
40%
52.1%

20%
3.4% 18%
0%
0%
SMPs MTAPs BIG4

Public listed entities Charities Non assurance Clients

Other statutory audit Other assurance

Panel B : Revenue Profile of Accounting Entities Per Segment (in %)

100% 17%
29%
40% 10%
80%
4% 17% 16%
60% 2% 13%
40%
54% 57%
42%
20%

0%
SMPs MTAPs BIG4

Statutory audit Other assurance

Non audit service to audit client Non audit service to non audit client

(Source: Adapted from Accounting

A and Corporate Regulatory Authority (2008):
( p.23)

Figure 3 Panel A shows that charities are general covered by the three segments (SMPs,
MTAPs and BIG4). However, for public listed entities (PLE), BIG4 firms dominate the market. All
three segments also have significant number of clients which require other assurance services.
se In
the PLE segment, audit engagements
engagement tend to be long lasting due to the economics of learning (new
engagement is costly to the auditor and management), but there is strong contestability among the

10
BIG4. As competitive advantage in audit specialization is embedded in the human capital that can be
hired away, and BIG4 firms are perceived to be of similar and high quality, the threat of competition
is constant. BIG4 firms are organized as networks of limited liability partnerships and there remain
country-level differences in accounting and auditing standards. Both these factors cumulatively limit
BIG4 firms’ ability to export audit services to the region. Competition in the non-PLE segment is
tougher than PLE segment due to the large number of suppliers. The SMPs and MTAPs, which have
inferior network compared with BIG4 firms, will find it even harder to export audit service.

Figure 3 Panel B shows that audit revenue (i.e. statutory audit and other assurance) is the
largest component of the revenue stream for all accounting firms (SMPs – 54%+2%, MTAPs –
57%+17% and BIG4 – 42%+13%). However, there is economy of scope – at least in the areas of
client and information acquisition – among auditing, tax and many advisory services. There is a
limitation for offering non-audit service to audit client – some services are specifically excluded, and
the percentage of revenue of non-audit service is capped for allowable services – so as not to
compromise audit independence. From the revenue mix, BIG4 firms have some success in offering
non-audit service to their audit client – SMPs and mid tiers have low ratio of non-audit revenue to
audit revenue – but in all three cases, more non-audit revenue is derived from non-audit clients than
from audit clients.

Therefore, there is some logic to support a strategy that focuses on improving the
competitiveness of the SMPs and MTAPs to expand their non-audit services, and possibly to export
these services to the region. However, BIG4 firms are clearly ahead of the game in terms of
capability to export services. These firms benefit from R4 to promote Centre of Excellence in
Singapore through fiscal incentive.

The CDAS report contains two recommendations that influence the firm strategy, structure and
rivalry attribute. The two recommendations are: Recommendation 5 (R5) on de-regulation in the
ownership of public accountancy to promote entry, and Recommendation 6 (R6) on upgrading the
capability of SMP in technology investment, training and business collaboration. The effect of these
two recommendations is self evidence – it increases competition in an already competitive market
while providing the helping hand to encourage innovation. The missing component is the lack of
clarity of how tax and advisory service can be exported to the region because SMPs, and to a much
lesser extent MTAPs, are fairly weak in market development compared to BIG4 firms. Overall, this
attribute is moderately strong.

e. Government:

The CDAS report testifies to the role of government to improve the competitiveness of the
accountancy sector. The government influences the competitiveness of the accountancy sector by
providing the resources and the strengthening of the accountancy infrastructure and institutions to
implement the strategy.

The resources that are brought to bear are information and funding. Recommendation 3
(R3) establishes the ASRC to enhance applied accounting research, and recommendation 9 (R9)

11
 establishes the ASDF to fund the incentives for raising productivity, building capability and
encouraging regionalization.

The publicly funding resources require an administrative oversight body. Recommendation

10 (R10) is to establish the SAC as the government body with oversight over the administration of
ASDF, ASRC, SQP and specialization pathways. The other institutional change is to mould ISCA to
become a strong collaborator for the strategy. Recommendation 8 (R8) involves reviewing ISCA’s
constitution and infrastructure in the transformation.10

5. Concluding Thoughts

The analysis shows that Singapore is strong in almost all four attributes of the Porter’s
Diamond. The CDAS report is a blueprint to enhance the attributes via suitable strategic levers. The
following diagram summarises the main content of the CDAS report using Porter’s Diamond as the
underlying framework.

Figure 4: Recommendations of the CDAS Report with the Porter's Diamond

Firm Strategy, Structure and Competition

(moderately strong)
R5 : De-regulate to promote entry/competition
R6 : Upgrade SMPs

Factor Conditions Demand Conditions

(strong) (strong)
R2 : Specialization R7: Audit exemption
R4 : Centre of Excellence

Luck
Related Supplier Industries
(strong) Government
R1 : Establish SQP (involved)
R3 : ASRC (research)
R8 : ISCA (collaborator)
R9 : ASDF (Funding)
R10: SAC (oversight)
(Source: Adapted from Figure 1 of this paper)

10
ISCA is the new name of the national professional body as it changed its name in 2013 from Institute of
Singapore Certified Public Accountants (ISCPA). In addition, the designation of professional accountants was
changed from certified public accountants (CPA) to chartered accountants (CA).

12
 The framework shows that Singapore has strong fundamentals in becoming the accountancy
hub in the region by 2020 and beyond. The CDAS report is focused on strategy formulation, and
briefly on the resource and institution for strategy implementation. The report contains specific
target and timeline to energize stakeholders into action. However, limited by the nature of the
report, the implementable policy programs are left to the stakeholders. It is therefore an open
question if the targeted GDP share will be achieved by 2020, but that is not the key point. The point
is we are going in the right direction.

Reference

Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, 2008. Key Facts and Trends of the Singapore's
Public Accountancy Profession and Market. Access on 1 July 2014 from
www.acra.gov.sg/uploadedFiles/Content/Public_Accountants/Professional_Resources/Conference_
Materials/2008/KeyFactsandTrendsofSingaporesPublicAccountancyProf%20(1).pdf

Committee to Develop the Accountancy Sector, 2010. Final Report on Transforming Singapore into a
Leading Global Accountancy Hub for Asia-Pacific. Access on 1 July 2014 from
www.acra.gov.sg/uploadedFiles/Content/Publications/Reports/CDASFinalReport12Apr10.pdf

Moon, H.C., Rugman, A.M., & Verbeke, A., 1995. The generalized double diamond approach to
international competitiveness. In A. Rugman, J. Van Den Broeck & A. Verbeke (Eds.), Research in
global strategic management: Volume 5: Beyond the diamond (pp. 97–114). Greenwich, CT: JAI
Press.

Porter, M.E., 1990. The Competitive Advantage of Nations. New York: Free Press.

Rodrik, D., 2009. Industrial Policy: Don’t Ask Why, Ask How. Middle East. Development Journal. Vol.
1(1): 1-29. DOI: 10.1142/S1793812009000024

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