Speech by ICPAS President Dr Ernest Kan at the 2010 CPA Games Opening Ceremony

11 Sep 2010    Category: Speeches

Good Morning

My fellow ICPAS Council Members

Members of the Community, Social and Sports Advisory Panel & Young Professionals Group

And representatives from participating firms

Welcome to the 2010 CPA Games Opening Ceremony. 

ICPAS started the CPA Games in the 1980s.  Thirty years on, the Games continue to attract strong participation from the firms. This year, we have close to 200 teams participating in 18 sports.  For the first time, staff from Auditor-General’s Office are participating in this year’s Games. We welcome them and look forward to their continued participation in future CPA Games. 

The CPA Games celebrate the spirit of sportsmanship and promote the sporting values of excellence, friendship and respect. I would like to commend the players for balancing the demands of work with the rigours of training for the games. 

In doing so, they can be reminded that sports provides a healthy balance to their career pursuits.  There are life lessons one can learn from sports which apply to any human endeavour.  Through being involved in sports, one picks up values such as dedication, perseverance, teamwork and the pursuit of excellence.   

Besides promoting a healthy lifestyle, the Games are an avenue for those in the profession to interact and build friendships. With this annual event, we hope to help strengthen the bonds among participants and build a united, cohesive CPA Singapore community.  

ICPAS has organised what I would call the Olympics of the local accountancy profession for many years. Over the years, we have continued to grow the Games, adding new categories such as Cricket, Local Area Network Games and Paintball, to cater to members’ needs.   This year, we are introducing new novelty games such as Darts and Beach volleyball.

The event is highly anticipated by those in the profession year after year, myself included. In fact, I will be representing my firm Deloitte to participate in the table tennis category, as I have done for many years. I know of others such as David Phua, a member of ICPAS’ Community, Social and Sports Advisory Panel, who takes part in basketball, year after year. 

For over 10 years, Deloitte has been the reigning champion for table-tennis. And PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young have dominated the competition in tennis and volleyball, respectively. Last year, the overall champion of the CPA Games was KPMG.  It goes to show that sporting talent abounds in the various firms.

This year, the defending champions will have to put up a good fight to hold on to their championship title. It will be interesting to see who emerges tops this year.

And today, we are kicking off the CPA Games with one of the most popular sports —

street soccer. I believe the audience will have a good time cheering on their favourite teams. I will end by wishing the players good luck and I hope everyone has plenty of fun today.

Thank you.