ABSTRACT
The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will be established in
2015 to integrate the regional economy. A professional accountant
in a member country may then apply to practice in other member
countries. This exploratory study investigates the competencies
of Thai accounting students and their readiness for the AEC, and
also tests for the relationships between the students’ competencies
and their level of readiness. This study finds that the accounting
students’ Ethical, Knowledge, Capability, and Relationship
competencies are at the high level, while their Analysis competency
is only at the moderate level. The level of students’ readiness for
the AEC is indicated to be at the medium high level. The results
of the regression analysis show a significant positive relationship
between the accounting students’ Capability, Knowledge, Ethical
and Relationship competencies, and the level of their readiness for
the AEC.