With the participation of GASTAT

(SESRIC) board of directors holds its 41^st meeting

 As a representative of Saudi Arabia, the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) participated in the 41^st meeting of the Board of Directors of the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) on 18th December 2018 in Ankara city.

Saudi Arabia is a board member of the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), which includes nine member states, seven of which are elected for 3- year period.

Saudi Arabia participation reflects the positive role of GASTAT in the different statistical programs. It also shows the progress achieved by Saudi Arabia in the statistical field, which highlights the effective role of Saudi Arabia in the international statistics map. In addition, it reflects the results of the statistical sector’ strategic transformation in Saudi Arabia, which the country always supports as it has a crucial role in making national development decisions.  

The vice president of GASTAT, Mr. Abdullah Albatil said that this meeting discussed all the center works conducted in 2018 in many activities and events such as providing statistical data and information about the member states, facilitating the cooperation projects and statistical integration plans between the member states, enriching the center’s statistical database and expand its coverage,  being up-to –date with all digital developments in the field of statistical publication and presentation, in addition to strengthening and enhancing the performance of the national statistics system in all member states in order to produce high-quality national statistics, for the purpose of supporting and assisting decision and policy makers, and enhancing the technical capabilities of the national statistics offices in the member states.

Albatil added that many studies and research about the challenges facing all member states have been prepared. Furthermore, two reports have been published about the services trade and the e-government services as a part of the Islamic Cooperation Organization related reports.

Regarding the technical training and cooperation, GASTAT vice president stated that technical cooperation has been enhanced between all member states. Moreover, many programs have been launched and implemented to strengthen their capabilities within a number of social and economic fields. The efforts of these states have been also supported to enhance the potentials of their human resources and national institutions by exchanging experts, holding workshops, and making study visits.

Albatil also said that the 41^st SESRIC board of directors’ meeting shed light on all completed activates that GASTAT participated in such as attending a meeting with the representatives of the national statistics offices of ICO member states in the United States of America last March, which was held as part of the events of the 49^th session of the United Nations Statistical Committee in New York.

As for the activities of the member states ‘statistical capacity building, Albatil mentioned that the results of a statistics course titled (Analyzing data in Saudi Arabia) have been reviewed, along with the results of many study visits to some member states including:  a study visit to Brunei about (labor statistics), a study visit to Malaysia about (Population and migration statistics), a study visit to Indonesia about (Education statistics), a study visit to Egypt about (Income and consumption statistics), and other visits to benefit from the most outstanding statistical experiences.

GASTAT vice president confirmed that the project of peer review of the national statistical offices of the ICO member states was established and that there is a memorandum of understanding between GASTAT and (SESRIC), within the project implementation in collaboration with SESRIC.

It is worth noting that SISREC is the most important statistical institution at the level of Islamic countries. It provides various services in the field of capacity building and the exchange of statistical expertise, and exerts efforts to strengthen relations of mutual cooperation and exchange visits between member states. It also prepares lists of all experts and technicians in order to develop mechanisms of the visits between those experts according to the needs of the states, in a way that serves the building of their statistical capacities.