Liew Chin Tong urges accountants to embrace multidisciplinary skills as AI reshapes finance profession

Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong said AI would displace some less sophisticated jobs held by accountants but would probably create new ones requiring deeper human judgement, fewer technical skills and more value-based decision-making. — Bernama pic

First Published: Thursday, 05 Nov 2026 3:51 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong has urged accountants and finance professionals to be multidisciplinary as the positive and negative impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) emerge and continue to occupy the minds of finance leaders in the years ahead.

He said AI would displace some less sophisticated jobs held by accountants but would probably create new ones requiring deeper human judgement, fewer technical skills and more value-based decision-making.

“It is in this context that I would say that Malaysia’s positioning in this less innocent and more complex era is to focus on ‘the three middles’.

“Namely, to fortify Malaysia’s position as the indispensable middle in the supply chain and in technology; to hold on to the geopolitical middle and be non-aligned throughout; and to build a strong middle class,” he said in his keynote address at the Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) Congress 2026 today.

He said that in 2026, an accountant or finance leader would be nearing dereliction of his or her duties if no attention were paid to geopolitics and geoeconomics, supply chain resilience, critical materials and minerals, technology and AI, and carbon emissions and climate change.

Liew said Malaysia, Asean and even Australia should see themselves as middle powers, adding that greater alignment among these countries would strengthen their ability to deal with superpowers, including the United States (US), China and Russia, on a more equal footing.

“But the US middle class is shrinking, and would not be able to consume the world’s entire manufacturing capacity. ASEAN states would need to create a sizable middle class rich enough to consume the outputs from the productive capacity in the region,” he said. 

He said building and sustaining the middle class would require Southeast Asian nations to abandon a race-to-the-bottom mentality, work together to establish a floor on wages, create more homegrown technology corporations and increase local ownership of technology.

“Often, accountants and finance leaders are asked by their multinational clients or employers to urge ASEAN governments to compete with each other for favourable tax incentives, or suppression of wages or workers’ rights, or relaxed environmental laws and compliance requirements.

“I urge the accountants and the finance leaders in the room to resist such race-to-the-bottom acts as we have a collective objective to see a prosperous, cohesive, and safe Asean people,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Liew said he had visited the Malaysian Institute of Accountants last week to discuss the long-awaited amendments to the Accountants Act 1967, which will mark its 60th anniversary in 2027.

“I hope we will be able to move the agenda to amend the law as quickly as possible. In the meantime, I hope to see discussion reflecting on six decades of the current legislation,” he said. — Bernama