I would say ACCA as I took it too. 
ACCA gives global recognition. Working in overseas countries like UK wont be issue at least.
Hope this helps 

I am not sure which paper you are referring to, so I list a few for your reference.
ACCA: https://portal.accaglobal.com/accaweb/faces...tionsTable.jspx
CIMA: http://www2.cimaglobal.com/cps/rde/xchg/SI...ot.xsl/1325.htm
CPA: http://www.cpacareers.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/...ex_ENA_HTML.htm

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Added on June 25, 2008, 10:21 am

The supertition or myth amongst many potential or existing students of professioinal bodies like MICPA, ACCA, CIMA or CPA is that taking up professional papers is the shortest enroute to be a CA. And they do not realise that these bodies membership is renewed annually and subscription fee is quite handsome in many cases. Once you cease paying the annual subsription fee, your membership is revoked immediately and later may be after a few years you decide to rejoin the body again, the penalty and fee in arrears would be a killing. Many if not in most cases, the associate members of the professional bodies once joined MIA, have given up their memebership in their origin body due to the reason mentioned above.

Reader of this thread should be cautious in distinguishing national accountancy body and professional accountancy body. For example, in Malaysia the national accountancy body is Malaysia Institute of Accountants (MIA) while Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA) is a professional accountancy body. MIA was established under the Accountants Act 1967 has assumed the authority empowered by law to manifest itself as the authoritative body regulating the accounting profession. The Institute is a member body of regional and international professional bodies which play a significant role in the development and advancement of accounting profession globally. Its membership in such bodies include the:
- Asean Federation of Accountants (AFA)
- Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA)
- International Federation of Accountants (IFAC)
- Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR)

Professional accountacy bodies like MICPA, ACCA, CIMA and CPA provides examinations, training, career support, technical knowledge and competency and even accredition of membership to its students (who later become associate member) in meeting the competency and expertise requirement of each country national accountancy body in recognising the qualification of a certified/chartered/public accountant. Take note that even now MIA also provides Qualifying Exams for admission to MIA but the passing rate is by far amongst all the lowest. By solely joining professional accoutancy body like MICPA, ACCA, CIMA and CPA does not qualify yourself as Chartered Accountant (in Malaysia context) or Certified Public Accountant (in Australia context) and so forth. Thus, you are still required to join MIA to be CA in Malaysia even if you already are a member of any professional accountacy body. Correct me if I am wrong.

However, in employment market, Malaysia specifically, qualification of any professional accountancy body (whether you are MICPA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA, ICAS, ICAEW, ICAI, ICAA, NZCA or CICA) is perceived as equivalent to MIA membership. Please refer to Accountants Act 1967, Part II of Schedule 1. In addition, the Listing Requirements (LR) of Stock Exchange in Malaysia also clearly spell out the same criterion for a director or person to sign the statutory declaration of a public listed company's accounts. Please refer to LR Chapter 9.27 of LR. Thus, there professional accountacy bodies qualifications are accepted as MIA membership admission without any examination.

But, please bear in mind that, this would not be the case for other countries national accountacy bodies. By simply taking up MICPA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA and so on does not automatically admit yourself to other national accountacy bodies. For instance, a US accounting degree might not be accepted as qualification for joining MIA but surely it is recognised by US national accountancy body due to different accounting standards adopted by Malaysia and US. For your information, International Accounting Standard Board (British/UK stream) and US Federation of Accounting Standard Board (US stream) still working together in convergence of conceptual framework on worldwide accepted accounting standards.

Usually, when we are talking about recognition of a professional accountancy course, it depends on the variant of accounting stream you are going for. For instance, in ACCA, for same paper of exmination, it has the options of different accounting stream variants, such as Malaysia, UK, International, Singapore or Hong Kong. Therefore, when forumer is over-zealously or should I say advocator of respective professional accountancy body to remark their qualification is better than other is exaggerated. Widely accepted by many national accountacy bodies are the words I prefer to use. Based on my personal experience, not all members from the same professional accountancy body shares same competency and expertise as it might have a few bad apples amongst itself.

I hope this thread would bring positive advice to readers or TS, who intents to pursue professional qualification in accountancy and not turn into a "my qualification is more popular or famous than yours" sort of things.