Friday, January 16, 2009

The Ninth ASEAN Heads of Statistical Offices Meeting (AHSOM 9)

16 January 2009, Singapore

Introduction

1. We, the ASEAN Heads of Statistical Offices, convened our ninth meeting in Singapore to discuss progress of our ongoing statistical programs as well as to reassess our strengths and weaknesses toward an enhanced and strengthened ASEAN Cooperation in Statistics in support of ASEAN Community building.

2. Ms. Wong Wee Kim, Chief Statistician, Department of Statistics Singapore, chaired our Meeting. Ms. Koh Lin-Net, Deputy Secretary (Trade), Ministry of Trade and Industry delivered the opening address.

 Sustainable framework for the development of ASEAN statistics

 3. Recognizing the importance of information and knowledge in implementing and monitoring the new ASEAN Charter and its enabling blueprints in the three pillar communities, namely, ASEAN Economic Community, ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community and ASEAN Political-Security Community, we have agreed on a sustainable framework for the development of ASEAN statistics.

4. The framework outlines the basic statistical priority areas, general strategies and programs, key enabling mechanisms and statistical outputs that will facilitate the production, dissemination, and communication of more comparable, timely and quality statistics in support of our major stakeholders in the ASEAN and international communities. Guided by this framework, we further agreed to pursue a strategic planning process that will lead us to the formulation of a strategic plan that will define the vision, mission, principles and values, as well as specific goals and mechanisms for an ASEAN Statistical Community.

Support to ASEAN initiatives

5. We reiterated our commitment to support the updating of the ASEAN Community Progress Monitoring System (ACPMS) and ASEAN Statistical Yearbook (ASYB). We also agreed to further expand the ASEAN Statistical Indicators as the main reference for the sustainable development and harmonization of ASEAN statistics.  

6. In addition, we created a Working Group on Data Sharing, Analysis, and Dissemination to promote transparency and wider use of statistics in policy making and to facilitate the updating of the ACPMS and ASYB.

Harmonization of statistics

7. We acknowledged and reiterated our support to the ongoing processes in the implementation of the ASEAN Common Industrial Classification and International Standard Industrial Classification Rev.4 in our national statistical systems. We also endorsed the harmonization of manufacturing industry statistics through the East Asia Manufacturing Industry Classification initiatives.

Adoption and promotion of international standards and good practices

8. We reaffirmed our support to promote and facilitate implementation of the System of National Accounts (SNA) and endorsed the SNA development programme for ASEAN, including setting specific targets, establishing information sharing mechanisms, and providing relevant training.

 9. We adopted a work programme to launch the ASEAN Population Census Forum toward an agreement on common population statistics.

Statistical capacity building

10. We noted the various statistical initiatives of our international development partners, and acknowledged their contribution to the development of statistics in ASEAN. We further agreed to enhance communication mechanisms with our international partners.

Hosting of the ASEAN Heads of Statistical Offices Meeting (AHSOM)

11. We expressed our deep appreciation to Singapore, in particular the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, for the excellent leadership, meeting arrangements, and facilitation, and for the warm hospitality accorded to us during the strategic planning sessions and AHSOM 9. 

12. We also acknowledged with appreciation the confirmation of Thailand to host the Tenth AHSOM in 2010.


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