The Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf (GCC-Stat) celebrated its official inauguration under the patronage of H.E. Yousef Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman on 09 April 2014 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

The Inauguration Ceremony of GCC-Stat was attended by senior government officials, heads of National Statistical Offices, and diplomatic mission representatives from GCC member states, including H.E. Hind Al Subaih, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour & Minister of State for Planning and Development of the State of Kuwait; H.E. Dr. Abdullatif Al Zayani, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council; H.E. Muhanna bin Abdul Karim Al-Muhanna, Director General of the Department of Statistics and Information of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; H.E. Rashid bin Khamis Al Suwaidi, Director General of the National Centre for Statistics of United Arab Emirates; H.E. Dr. Khalifah bin Abdullah Al Barwani, CEO of the National Centre for Statistics and Information of the Sultanate of Oman; H.E. Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Al Amer, President of the Central Information Organization of the Kingdom of Bahrain; Mr. Naser Al Mahdi, Director of Censuses, Household Surveys and Statistical Methods Department of the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics of the State of Qatar; and Mr. Sabir bin Said al Harbi, Director General of GCC-Stat, in addition to a number of other government officials and diplomatic missions representatives from GCC member states, as well as official delegates from other countries.

Back to back with the Inauguration Ceremony of GCC-Stat, the International Forum on Transforming the Statistical System in GCC Countries: Productivity and New Data Challenges was organized on 09-10 April 2014 with the participation of heads of the statistical system of the GCC region; senior officials of the GCC Secretariat; representatives of national, regional and international statistical agencies and organizations; academics and researchers; and other users of official statistics.

Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, delivered a presentation titled “Strengthening National Statistical Systems of GCC Countries through GCC-Stat” during the thematic session “GCC-Statistical System: The Way Forward” of the Forum where he emphasized the need for an overall statistical coordination mechanism to oversee and measure the whole development process through statistics. Prof. Alpay indicated the factors which bring about regional statistical initiatives and stated that a union under the GCC umbrella necessitates integrated flow of information. By giving examples from similar regional statistical initiatives, Prof. Alpay then highlighted facts and figures from the recent developments in official statistics including Big Data, Open Data, and Data Revolution. Underlining the fact that statistical capacity development is a never-ending track, Prof. Alpay specified the possible cooperation and collaboration ways with the GCC-Stat through StatCaB Programme of SESRIC, activities of OIC Statistical Commission, and OIC Certification Programme for Statisticians.

The International Forum on Transforming the Statistical System in GCC Countries: Productivity and New Data Challenges aimed at:

• building on the current state of the statistical system in the GCC countries in order to build an effective future statistical system;
• selecting the pathways for the future statistical system of the GCC countries; and
• taking advantage of innovations in the production & dissemination of statistics for the benefit of the statistical offices in the GCCcountries.

Incepted in June 2011 to serve as a common official pool of statistics and data for the GCC member states, the GCC-Stat was approved by the GCC Ministerial Council in September 2011 and its Charter was officially endorsed in December 2012 by the GCC Supreme Council. The GCC-Stat Headquarters is located in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

To learn more, please visit:http://gccstat.org/productivity-and-new-data-challenges.html

Presentation

• Strengthening National Statistical Systems of GCC Countries through GCC-Stat, Prof. Savas Alpay, Director General of SESRIC (Speech) (Presentation)

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