CA Sri Lanka’s second Business Plan competition to begin in January

Standing from left - CA Sri Lanka Alternate Chairman of Urban School and Non Commerce Stream Students Promotions Committee Dulitha Perera, Sri Lanka and Australia Chamber of Commerce President Kalum De Silva, CA Sri Lanka President Lasantha Wickremasinghe, Queensland University of Technology Brisbane QUT Business School Assistant Dean Andrew Paltridge, CA Sri Lanka Brand Development and Corporate Communication Committee Chairman Asoka Pieris and Fellow Member of CA Sri Lanka, Member of CPA Australia, Head Panel of Judges Saman Bandara

By Zahara Zuhair
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) announced that the second Business Plan competition will get underway in January next year, in which the  winning team  will be given the opportunity to take part in the Case Study Competition organized by the Queensland University of Technology  held in May 2017 in 
Brisbane, Australia.
Each team will comprise of five students who will be sitting for the GCE Advanced Level Examination in the Commerce stream in August 2017 and 2018.
The participating teams will be given the opportunity to choose a topic, which will be converted into a business idea and pitched to a renowned panel of judges at regional level and national levels.
Speaking at the launch, CA Sri Lanka Brand Development and Corporate Communication Committee Chairman Asoka Pieris said that this competition is not  only an event for Advanced Level students to enhance and  develop their knowledge, but it will also will improve their innovativeness.
“Preparing a Business Plan is an important part for a Chartered Accountant. Therefore it’s quiet relevant that CA Sri Lanka leading in doing the Business Plan competition in Sri Lanka. Business  Plan is part of A/L syllabus, it will be helpful for students who are participating to understand  what a Business Plan is,” he said.
He said that the competition will be comprised of three stages where the winner will be selected out of the 60 participating teams.
The primary aim of the competition is to provide students with a thorough understanding on the preparation and presentation of a Business Plan to facilitate new venture creation to the Sri Lankan economy.
Sri Lanka and Australia Chamber of Commerce President Kalum De Silva said that as they expect to foster business relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka, the partnership between CA Sri Lanka and Queensland University of Technology is one such initiative. 
“We were looking in to various industries where we can work on. One of the industries was education. We learnt that there are 6,200 Sri Lankan students in Australia at the moment and 85 percent are in Melbourne. We needed to take more students to Sydney and Brisbane. Then Andrew expressed his willingness to have a team participating  in the Business Plan  competition from Sri Lanka, then I was thinking at CA Sri Lanka and we had endless discussions,” he said.
CA Sri Lanka President Lasantha Wickremasinghe said that their institute has a history of 58 years with over 37,000 students aspiring to be Chartered Accountants. He said that for the BSc Applied Accounting degree within a relatively short period of time they received accreditation from foreign accounting bodies and universities including from Sydney Australia.
He said that there are 5,600 active members in their body and at least 30 percent serves in 40 countries and another 30 percent holding top positions in the corporate sector in Sri Lanka.
Visakha Vidyalaya was the winner at the inaugural competition held in 2015.