APMAA holds 15th annual conference

The Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Association (APMAA) held its 15th Annual Conference this week at Qatar University (QU), under the theme, “Management Accounting and Finance in the 21st Century: Challenges and Perspectives.” This is the first time the conference was held in a GCC country.The conference was held under the patronage of HE Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud al-Thani, governor of Qatar Central Bank and organised by QU’s College of Business and Economics.The conference welcomed 300 participants and more than 150 scientific papers were presented.The scope of the APMAA 2019 conference was to celebrate the new theoretical and practical developments in management accounting and managerial finance of the 21st century with particular attention to Asia-Pacific and GCC accounting issues.As the GCC oil-based economy is in transition to a more sustainable knowledge-based economic model, there is an eager motivation to actively investigate contemporary issues related to management accounting and finance.“Supporting academic research, especially in the area of accounting and finance, is an essential pillar for achieving economic diversification in Qatar. This is with the larger goal of achieving sustainable economic development in the long-term, which is part of the Qatar National Vision 2030, a vision that has been translated into a set of objectives and programmes through the National Development Strategy 2011–2016, which is considered a first step,” QU president Dr Hassan al-Derham said. He added that the university’s participation in organising and hosting this conference is a clear demonstration of the university’s commitment to the development of the accounting and financial professions.The conference represents the largest scientific gathering in the field of accounting and finance in Asia, and is attended by a group of researchers and experts from around the world such as Australia, Japan, China, Malaysia and other Asian, European and North American countries.The main goal of the APMAA annual conference was to bring together researchers and practitioners to exchange theories, ideas, techniques and experiences relating to all aspects of management and business accounting.