Vantage Point: 
Asia-Pacific Defines Its Vision
2012 Strategy

The most remarkable facet of the Asia-Pacific region is its diversity, in almost every sense of the word: geographic, cultural, linguistic, religious, political, and economic. For CFA Institute, another important facet is growth in members and candidates. Seven of the top ten countries by CFA candidate registration are in Asia-Pacific, and our current count of 14,000 members in the region may double over the next five years.

A successful Asia-Pacific strategy for CFA Institute must recognize the region’s diversity and address the widespread growth in candidates and members. Recently, we developed our Asia-Pacific Strategy 2012, which explains how CFA Institute plans to achieve its Vision 2012 strategic objectives in the region.

Our focus begins with education and providing effective, lifelong learning to members, both in person and through technology. Educational content must be locally relevant in those markets where most of our candidates and members practice: China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Australia. We must also continue to support CFA Program candidates by (1) establishing a network of employer and university relationships and (2) providing timely and useful CFA Program information, delivered in a variety of formats.

Another priority will be to increase our outreach and engagement throughout the region by emphasizing the importance of interrelationships for employers, governmental authorities, and other industry participants. CFA Institute has benefited a great deal from its network of members and societies in the region, who all serve as local advocates and champions. We must continue to draw on this rapidly growing resource for information, access, and influence so that we can achieve our mission. The Hong Kong office has been dedicated to the Asia-Pacific region since 1997, but further engagement may require small CFA Institute offices in other financial centers.

Societies are a vital component of our Asia-Pacific strategy, and each of the 15 CFA societies in the region serves as an important bridge to the local market. We will work with each member society on systematic strategic planning, modeling best practices in society governance, and recruitment and retention of active volunteers. In some growing markets, such as Vietnam and Kazakhstan, we must collaborate with volunteers to help them establish local member societies.

These ambitious plans for Asia-Pacific will require additional staff to join our talented team already hard at work in the Hong Kong office. Even with more staff, CFA Institute will rely on its greatest strength as an organization: the dedication of volunteer members. As the legendary Chinese author Sun Tzu once said, “Those who do not use local guides will not be able to gain the advantages of the terrain.” 

We look forward to working with all of you to carry out the CFA Institute mission.