26th June 2006: Indian Chartered Accountants can look forward to practice in Singapore and the UK as the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (ICAI) is in the process of signing a mutual recognition of professional agreement with the two countries.

ICAI president T N Manoharan said that the association, the apex body for CAs in India, was in very advanced stage of discussion with its counterpart in Singapore for signing the agreement.

"I am hopeful that in next two months, everything would be finalised between both the institutes," he said, pointing out that this was a part of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with the city-state.

ICAI has also initiated talks with its counterpart in the UK. "This is at a preliminary stage now," he said, adding that besides mutual recognition of degrees, many other areas are being looked into for cooperation.

"For this, an Indo-UK study group has been formed at the instance of the Commerce Ministry and I expect that the agreement with the UK would be through by the end of this year," Manoharan said.

Apart from the two countries, SAARC nations like Nepal and Sri Lanka had also envinced interest in having similar kind of agreement with ICAI. "Dialogue would start soon," the ICAI president said.