The General Authority for Statistics participated in the 9th Global Conference on (SDMX), which is being held in the Kingdom of Bahrain under the title of “Empowering Data Communities.” His Excellency Dr. Fahad Aldossari, the President of the General Authority for Statistics, headed the Authority’s delegation participating in the conference with the aim of discussing the latest developments in the field of statistical data and metadata and benefiting from techniques and tools that contribute to enhancing cooperation, knowledge and exchange of metadata through an international initiative to exchange statistical data and metadata between international organizations and a number of statistical offices.
The President of the General Authority for Statistics gave a speech at the conference in which he expressed his sincere thanks and appreciation to the Kingdom of Bahrain for hosting this important conference and for the good organization and hospitality. He also extended his appreciation to the Bahrain Information & eGovernment Authority (IGA), statistical offices, participating international organizations and SDMX sponsors for co-hosting this event with the support of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA) and Banca d’Italia. 
During his speech, Dr. Fahad Aldossari said that SDMX international initiative was launched in response to the continuing level of rapid developments and the ongoing demand for large and informative data sets to empower the data community and update and unify the mechanisms within this field, whether at a national or international level. He also pointed out that SDMX frameworks and standards are intended to help national statistical offices organize and exchange data and metadata. Additionally, our office uses SDMX to upload KSA’s data on platforms run by the International Monetary Fund and ESCWA. The areas covered include statistics of GDP, labor market, price, export, import, and relevant indicators of sustainable development goals through advancements in the application and use of SDMX rules at the international level, to facilitate the exchange of statistical data with regional and international organizations.
He confirmed that over the recent years the volume of statistical work has expanded, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's statistics sector has seen substantial transformations through statistical initiatives and projects led by the General Authority for Statistics, in order to produce statistical data and indicators  and to use the most sophisticated infrastructures for integrating various data sources and best in class infrastructures for data management and governance. In addition to the newly constructed data lake, it makes use of cloud computing techniques, and this technology is continuously being improved as part of the digital transformation initiative that supported development plans, programs, and policies including Vision 2030. In addition to the actively and successfully participates in international workshops and conferences to prepare and enable the national staff to transfer knowledge to the team leading the statistical transformation process in the Kingdom.
On the other hand, the 9th Global Conference on (SDMX) will be held over five days, from 29 October 2023 to 2 November 2023, and includes several key sessions on the importance of using new technologies for the (SDMX ) and utilizing artificial intelligence techniques as an enabling tool to facilitate access to official statistics. A number of workshops are also held with the aim of strengthening international relations and cooperation between major international organizations and benefiting from the technical expertise shared to develop statistical work among statistical offices.
It is noteworthy that the 9th Global Conference on (SDMX) is organized by the Bahrain Information & eGovernment Authority (IGA) and is a major international event in the statistical sector and indicators. It is organized every two years through the international initiative (SDMX), which was launched in 2002 and is managed by a group of international organizations with the aim of unifying and modernizing mechanisms and processes for exchanging statistical data and metadata between international organizations and a number of statistical offices.