The Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on “Opportunities and Advantages of Enhanced Collaboration on Statistical Information Management” organised by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP) Secretariat was held on 20–22 June 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Delegates of the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) from 11 UNESCAP Member Countries including Malaysia and Kazakhstan participated in the EGM. Additionally, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), ILO Regional Office for Asia and Pacific, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Asian Development Bank, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PARIS21, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and DevInfo Group attended the Meeting. Mrs. Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk, Researcher at the Statistics and Information Department, represented SESRIC thereat.

As the information environment is changing rapidly in the global world due to the technological improvements, the future role of official statistics needs to be transformed. In this regard, the NSOs, being the primary intermediaries of official statistics, face significant challenges and opportunities in terms of statistical information management Recognizing the quality and cost‐effectiveness of collaborative work, this EGM was established to act as a regional platform to define the agenda of regional cooperation on statistical information management, to develop related concepts, standards, tools and capacity development programmes for respective transformation processes within national statistical systems.

In this context, the participants shared country experiences and perspectives, reviewed relevant regional and international initiatives (METIS, MSIS, HLG‐BAS) and discussed the potential of emerging statistical business process models, including common metadata frameworks and standards (DDI and SDMX), for improving data quality, production efficiency and IT systems.

The delegates underlined the need for continuation of efforts to promote the modernizations of statistical information systems in the world and particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. In support of this, and to advocate and raise awareness of the need for leaders and development partners to engage in the modernization of statistical information systems, participants agreed to bring the outcomes of the EGM to the attention of heads of national statistical systems and the global statistical community.

Documents:

Programme

Concept Note

Report

Directory of Participants

For further information, please visit: http://www.unescap.org/stat/meet/egm-Jun2011/