Jitendra Chartered Accountants celebrates a decade of success in tandem with the growth of the UAE economy

Phenomenal growth of business in the UAE with around 40,000 free zone companies in 2011 compared to less than 5,000 in 2001

Emirate has now 40 free zones compared to just four in 2001; Each free zone has registered business growth between 500-800 per cent in the last 10 years

Dubai, April 26 2011:   In the context of the impressive growth of the UAE businesses which has seen a 500-800 per cent growth in company incorporations across the free zone of the UAE alone in the last decade, a leading business consultant today said that the country needs an autonomous accounting body to harness and consolidate best practices in book keeping for the benefit of the growing economy.

Mr. Jitendra Gianchandani, Managing Partner of the Jitendra Chartered Accountants (JCA), said: "The growth in company registrations in the UAE has grown phenomenally in the last 10 years and an independent accounting body will complement this growth and support the forward march of the economy."

"It will also nurture and accelerate the adoption of globally benchmarked corporate governance standards across the UAE as well accelerate capital market culture in the economy," he said.

 Jitendra Chartered Accountants, celebrating its 1oth anniversary this year, said such an independent regulatory and standards body will add value to the maturity of the UAE economy, which crossed a projected nominal GDP of AED 1 trillion in 2010 compared to AED 250 billion in 2001.

Paradigm change

"The economic landscape of the UAE underwent a paradigm change in the last 10 years. In 2001, there were only approximately 5,000 companies in four free zones. The 2011 count shows that there are 40 free zones across the UAE now with some 40,000 registered companies which is an ample testimony to the economic growth of this country," Mr. Gianchandani said.

A JCA statistics showed that as of 2011, there are over 7,000 companies in Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZ), over 3,000 in Dubai Airport Free Zone and more than 3,000 in the TECOM cluster comprising Dubai Media City and Dubai Internet City.  The number of companies in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is now at nearly 800 while over 3,000 companies are registered in RAK Free Zone and Ajman Free Zone respectively and 10,000 in Sharjah across SAIF Zone and Hamriyah.

"The number of national and multinational companies in the UAE has doubled in the last 10 years," Mr. Gianchandani said, adding that the growth in the number of free zone companies alone was a testimony of the growth of the UAE and Dubai in particular in the last decade," he said.

 "The growth has evidently opened opportunities for accounting auditing professionals in the UAE as well reinforced the need to streamline accounting and auditing practices with transparency in focus," he said.

Need for accounting entity

"At present IFRS and GAAP are widely used by most of the local and international companies, but there is no accounting body in the UAE, I hold strong view that UAE should have own autonomous accounting body as it will create strong capital market culture in the country and will create healthy corporate governance culture among the businesses," Mr. Gianchandani said.

"Once the accounting body is created, it will monitor and focus on the different aspects of the accounting and auditing profession and will bring uniformity while presenting the accounts. Foreign firms can also easily incorporate the accounts with head office if uniformity in accounts is maintained," he said.

Reflecting the growth of JCA in the last 10 years in the context of the economic growth and prosperity of the UAE, Mr. Gianchandani said that when he set up business in 2001, the population of the UAE was around 2.5 million, which now stands at over 7.5 million.

In tandem with the growth of the economy, the accounting and auditing industry also grew by leaps and bounds catalysed by mandatory stipulations by government bodies to enforce transparency and foster a healthy corporate culture in the UAE,

"The UAE economy has always adapted to the fluctuations of the global economic cyclical remarkably well. The Government and people are open to new ideas, they are accepting and adopting new things quickly and even after the recession, the UAE is reasonably doing well as they have responded quickly to the situation," Mr. Gianchandani said.

The past 10 years was a growth story for JCA which started from a 200 square feet office in 2001. The firm now has offices across the UAE and India handling some 1,000 clients across various industries. "What started as an accounting and auditing firm today is a diversified business consultancy entity offering an array of services that enable businesses from company formation, trade mark registration, corporate finance and HR consultancy to management consultancy," he pointed out.

Mr. Gianchandani said the company also helps businesses in corporate restructuring and liquidation and advise many clients on putting in place systems that improve productivity and cost-efficiency.

"Post-recession, the need for corporate restructuring, which also includes spin offs and liquidation of business units, have increased in the UAE and we help companies make sure that internal controls in such cases are in line with the legal infrastructure of the country so that these processes can be seamless and less time consuming," he said.

Mr.Gianchandani said that the UAE economy needs to reinforce norms of transparency more rigorously across its legal systems so as to protect investors.

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© Press Release 2011