Our interviewee this month is Raja Amjad Ali FCCA of Faisalabad-based Masood Textile Mills, probably the biggest vertically integrated company in Pakistan. From his perspective as general manager for strategic planning, finance and costing, he talks about business complexities, competition, and how his expertise has made him a key player in business growth and sustainability.
Meanwhile in India, the much less traditional sector of online gaming has been growing fast on the back of increased smartphone usage. Our article explores the prospects for maintaining growth amid regulatory uncertainty and compliance challenges.
Further uncertainty – this time over global tariffs – is the subject for our CPD technical article, which looks at the disruption to financial reporting that US tariff hikes could cause. We also find out about the importance of an ethical framework to support sustainability disclosures and what the new set of global ethics standards for sustainability mean for those preparing reports.
In other tech news, a Thomson Reuters report about the use of generative artificial intelligence by professionals reveals that specialised tools are being baked into workflows, and a vast majority of respondents expect the technology to be central to their daily work within the next five years. Find out how GenAI is being applied by different sectors within the finance profession in particular.
But as AI gains momentum in the Middle East, it is putting the talent pool under pressure. With a recent Deloitte report suggesting that businesses are struggling with both a lack of talent and technological readiness, we ask what organisations are doing to make up the skills shortfall.
Finally, we turn our attention to Fifa’s Club World Cup in the US this summer. Controversy and consternation are growing as Fifa struggles to secure tax concessions for participating teams, which are liable to pay millions of dollars to US tax authorities on top of tax payable in their home countries. With the majority of the 32 participants based outside the US, we look at how the absence of tax relief could significantly diminish the tournament’s financial attractions.
