The High Level Meeting on the Implementation of the 2008 SNA and Supporting Statistics in the Arab Region was held on 24 June 2013 in Amman, Jordan; jointly organized by UNESCWA, UNSD, AITRS and the Department of Statistics, Jordan. The participants of the meeting were; delegates of the National Statistical Office (NSO) from the 13 Arab Countries including Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Qatar, Palestine, Oman, Sudan, Tunisia, and the representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF - METAC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Ministry of Planning Jordan and the Central Bank of Jordan. SESRIC was represented by Ms. Münevver Nilgün Egemen, Senior Researcher.

Following the adoption of the 2008 SNA as the international standard for the compilation and dissemination of national accounts, the Implementation Programme for the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) and Supporting Statistics was launched by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its fortieth session. As part of this global effort the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and UNSD are cooperating to initiate the formulation of a national strategy and implementation programme for the 2008 SNA to support production of system-wide socio-economic statistics targeting the Arab Region, in collaboration with the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS), and the Statistics Department of the League of Arab States (LAS). It is expected that this initiative will lead to a multi-year statistical programme to move countries over to the 2008 SNA and to establish a minimum common data set of annual and high frequency statistics with quality “fit for purpose”.

The meeting brought together senior officials of the key stakeholders to be involved in the implementation process to discuss how a shared vision can be developed to support strengthening of national statistical system in order to achieve the changeover to the 2008 SNA. During the meeting with a view to formulating coordinated action there were discussions concerning the international and regional perspectives to develop the strategic vision, plan the work programme for the implementation of the 2008 SNA and its supporting statistics. The representatives of the UNSD, UNESCWA, IMF-METAC and Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics gave a short presentation to share their mandated activities and address the major challenges to be faced during implementation phase. Within this context Ms. Egemen briefed the participants about activities of the SESRIC to facilitate an exchange of experience and best practices among OIC member countries regarding the compilation of national accounts and the related short-term macro-economic indicators.

Following the meeting a 3-day Regional Seminar on the Implementation of the 2008 SNA and Supporting Statistics in the Arab Region was organized with the participation of national accounts experts and senior managers of economic statistics department from each NSO, the Central Bank, and the Ministry of Planning of all the Arab countries to present and discuss their experience in this respect.

Documents related to the meeting can be accessed on:
http://www.escwa.un.org/information/meetingdetails.asp?referenceNum=2163E