by SUN Yizhen

 

In recent years, China's continued push for high-standard opening-up has created broader space for global capital and professional organizations. Against this backdrop, more international institutions now regard China as an essential strategic market. Beyond bringing investment, technology, and global expertise, they are also engaging in localization and business innovation, helping align market rules and deepen talent exchange between China and the rest of the world. Many have become active international participants in China's high-quality development.

Jiemian News interviewed Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). Founded in 1919, CIMA is the world's largest professional body of management accountants, with members and students across more than 150 countries. In the conversation, Harding reflected on CIMA's milestones in China, explored how management accounting is evolving in the age of artificial intelligence, and offered forward-looking views on the capabilities Chinese companies will need as they globalize.

He emphasized that as Chinese firms increasingly venture overseas, finance professionals will become central to strategic planning and decision-making. Deepening their understanding of international standards, strengthening competitiveness in global markets, and providing more valuable insights to corporate leadership will define the profession's next stage of development.

Jiemian News: What does the Chinese market mean for CIMA? How has the organization built its presence since entering China, and what opportunities has it encountered along the way?

Harding: China's scale, global economic influence, and the role Chinese companies play in driving trade and investment make it a critical core market for our global strategy.

CIMA has been in mainland China for two decades. We established our first mainland office in Shanghai in 2006. The year 2026 marks our twentieth anniversary in the country. In November 2025, our Shanghai representative office was officially inaugurated in Pudong's Qiantan area. Last year also marked CIMA's sixtieth year in Hong Kong.

During this time, we have seen remarkable growth and innovation. Shanghai itself has transformed, and China has undergone rapid development alongside structural maturation. The business landscape continues to produce impressive achievements.

Education has been a cornerstone of CIMA's development in China. We now work with nearly 100 universities and higher-education institutions nationwide. These partnerships help ensure students develop practical, workplace-ready skills, aligned with both China's needs and global business expectations.

When I first began working in China, someone asked me what's so important about China. I said that over the next ten years, we will be seeing management accountinginnovation coming from China. Today, we are starting to see leading thinking coming out from our university partners and corporative partners.

 

Jiemian News: As Chinese companies accelerate global expansion, demand is rising for finance professionals who understand international rules. Globally recognized accounting qualifications are also gaining attention in China. How does CIMA's certification empower Chinese finance professionals?

Harding: As Chinese companies expand internationally, finance professionals will play an indispensable role in guiding strategic decisions. Expectations of them are changing. Their responsibilities now extend well beyond reporting and compliance into value creation and business partnership.

They need to understand international business practices, corporate governance, risk management, and decision frameworks. They must operate across cultures and regulatory systems, translating financial strategy into operational outcomes that drive commercial success.

What distinguishes CIMA from many other accounting pathways is our focus on financial management and management accounting. We develop professionals who support strategy execution, performance improvement, and long-term decision-making. We emphasize commercial insight, risk control, cost management, strategic planning, and long-term decision-making – capabilities that are essential to both domestic enterprises and multinational organizations.

Our Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) qualification syllabus  continues to evolve, integrating digital skills, data analytics, sustainability, and artificial intelligence. This forward-looking approach helps Chinese finance professionals maintain competitiveness as business models and technologies change.

In an era defined by outward expansion, Chinese finance professionals need precisely this combination of global perspective and practical capability if they are to help their companies succeed abroad.

 

Jiemian News: With rapid advances in artificial intelligence, represented by technologies like DeepSeek, how do you see AI reshaping the accounting profession? What opportunities and challenges does it bring?

Harding: Artificial intelligence presents enormous opportunities for accounting and finance. It automates routine work and helps us look ahead more effectively. At its core, management accounting supports timely and informed decision-making – understanding current performance, identifying future opportunities, and determining how best to capture them. AI enhances our ability to do all of this in unprecedented ways.

Two issues stand out. One is how we understand AI itself. I often say AI is like an extremely efficient and precise employee—but not an intelligent one. Today's systems are not true general intelligence. They can extract and retrieve information from historical data, but they are not well equipped to judge whether that information is reliable or meaningful.

Finance professionals therefore need to understand how to use AI properly – how to work with a tool that is extraordinarily fast and accurate yet inherently limited. We must compensate for those limitations and integrate AI capabilities into everyday business processes.

The other issue emerges from conversations with companies and CFOs worldwide. A recent joint survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and CIMA found that 88 percent of finance leaders expect AI to be the most transformative technology in the next two years but only a small proportion feels well prepared. This gap tells us the challenge is not awareness, but capability and execution with organizations.

Training still focuses heavily on audit and financial reporting. Professionals with strong management accounting expertise combined with technological fluency remain scarce. These are precisely the skills the industry urgently needs. We are working with Chinese enterprises and universities to embed such capabilities into curricula and training programs, helping individuals succeed and enabling organizations to grow sustainably.

 

Jiemian News: In areas such as openness, security, convenience, and sustainability, what policy expectations or suggestions do you have for China?

Harding: From CIMA's perspective, when institutions – including professional education providers – operate according to international standards, they support high-quality development. Shared standards foster cooperation and build trust through mutual recognition.

When professional qualifications, such as the CGMA Qualification, are recognized across borders, individuals gain mobility within organisations and broader international career opportunities. Clear and well-defined regulatory environments also reduce the effort finance teams must devote to navigating compliance differences, allowing more resources to be directed toward value creation and performance improvement. For companies operating across multiple jurisdictions, this is particularly important.

 

Jiemian News: What are CIMA's next steps in China? How will you continue to deepen cooperation and cultivate the next generation of finance leaders?

Harding: We have an ambitious vision for China. Among international professional bodies operating here, we are currently the only one offering top-tier training and certification focused specifically on management accounting. After twenty years in the country, we are particularly committed to providing advanced training for senior finance professionals.

We began with CIMA and the CGMA Professional Qualification. In 2022, we launched the Digital Management Accounting Programme (DMA®). We now collaborate with more than one hundred universities nationwide, and the CGMA Professional Qualification has gained official recognition in thirteen Chinese cities. Last September, after the  CGMA management-level was repeatedly included in Beijing’s official catalogue of recognized overseas professional qualifications, the city’s human resources authority also added the DMA credential to the latest policy framework.

Our priority now is to expand recognition across more provinces and cities, enhance awareness across mainland China, and strengthen the reputation of CIMA's CGMA, and digital management accounting credentials. We want to extend our reach beyond the current thirteen cities. Management accounting skills remain the core competencies the finance profession needs—today and in the future.

 

Jiemian News: Shanghai is accelerating its development as a higher-level international financial center, with a focus on serving the real economy, fintech, and green finance. From a global perspective, what are Shanghai's key strengths today, and what challenges lie ahead?

Harding: Shanghai has long been China's central commercial and financial hub. When we observe the global landscape, we typically begin by looking at national economic scale, and then we focus on cities with global influence. Institutions such as McKinsey & Company have long studied global cities and their evolving roles.

Two decades ago, when people discussed the world's leading cities, London and New York dominated the conversation. Today, Shanghai has risen decisively into the ranks of global financial hubs. It is not only China's financial center but also a world-class one—a place of global influence in both ideas and development.

Innovations emerging from Shanghai increasingly shape global understanding and practice. Chinese mobile payment platforms now operate across much of Asia and have become a preferred method for many users. It is an exciting phase of development, and Shanghai is demonstrating genuine leadership.