CIMA challenges Middle East students to become the global business leaders of the future

Ambitious business & finance students across the world have the opportunity to gain global exposure and business skills for the future courtesy of the CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) Global Business Challenge (GBC). 

The 2013 CIMA GBC, which is being held in partnership with Barclays, is an international business & finance management competition open to full time undergraduates of public and private colleges and universities. The competition is designed to bring out the best in potential young business leaders. It provides students with a fantastic opportunity to test their business, management & financial knowledge and expand upon their competitive ability. In addition, it has previously led to internship opportunities from well-known organisations. 

In the region, the competition is open to full time undergraduate students from a university or college based in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar or Saudi Arabia. The registration process is conducted online and will close on March 30, 2013. The selected participants will then compete with each other at the regional finals that will be held in Dubai on May 31, 2013. 

Deepesh Lad, FCMA, CGMA Finance Chief Operating Officer, Barclays Asia Pacific, stated: “Barclays supports the CIMA GBC as global headline sponsor because the programme helps to give students firsthand experience of dealing with real challenges faced by global organisations today. These experiences significantly enhance business skills among its participants which is extremely valuable to any firm and something we want to provide our full backing to.” 

CIMA offers an international qualification in management accountancy and is the world’s leading and largest management accounting professional body. Each team will be expected to analyse, report and present on a CIMA case study. The winning team from each region will be flown to the global final in South Africa in Augustto compete against 25 other regions for the title of global champions. 

The teams taking part will come from the Middle East, Australia, Bangladesh, Mainland China, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the UK, Vietnam, Zambia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Thailand.

Geetu Ahuja, Head of GCC - Middle East, CIMA said: “After the phenomenal success of last year’s competition; CIMA is hugely excited to launch the fifth GBC. We received an overwhelming response from GCC-based universities last year and saw some of the best minds at work. We are looking forward to continue the momentum and offer students from the region a global platform to hone their business, finance and management skills. 

“The fact that Zimbabwe, Myanmar and Thailand are taking part for the first time shows the ever increasing global appeal of the competition. Many of the world’s most respected business leaders qualify with CIMA. We currently have over 195,000 members and students in 176 countries. As such the competition represents a real opportunity to showcase the global business leaders of the future.”