Chinese firms will be challenging the dominance of the biggest players in the audit market within the next decade, Baker Tilly's CEO has declared at a conference in Beijing.

Geoff Barnes was speaking at the Baker Tilly international world conference to an audience of 250 from around the world.

He said: 'The accounting profession in China is relatively young but it is on an accelerated upward trajectory; it is not unrealistic to expect a number of Chinese firms to be challenging the dominance of established international networks in the near future.

'Recent regulation mandating that audit firms are comprised of a minimum of 60% of Chinese partners by 2014 will encourage domestic firms to speed up the cultivation of talented Chinese professionals with the international vision, skills and experience that the market expects. At Baker Tilly China we are some way ahead in this regard - all of our senior partners and management team are Chinese nationals - and our active programme of secondments is providing newly qualified CPAs with valuable international experience.'

Barnes added: 'Great progress has been made towards the convergence of national and international accounting standards, which is helping Chinese firms to meet international requirements, and boosting the overseas development of Chinese companies.'