The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority, FCSA, participated in the 50th session of the annual meeting of the United Nations Statistical Commission, UNSC, at the UN headquarters in New York held during 5-8 March 2019.
The meeting was attended by chairmen and directors of statistical departments of many countries, as well as representatives of relevant international organizations, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the International Labor Organization and UNESCO.
Cooperation
In his remarks during the meeting, Abdulla Nasser Lootah, Director-General of FCSA reviewed the importance of the importance of cooperation and joint action and harnessing the latest technologies and benefiting from the data revolution and artificial intelligence techniques to achieve the SDGs agenda 2030.
Agenda
In his turn, Arif Al Muhairi, Executive Director of the Dubai Statistics Center (DSC), said: "DSC underlines the importance of participating in the annual meetings of the United Nations International Statistical Commission. Indeed, DSC has this meeting as an important item in its annual agenda for it is the most important international statistical event where members of the international statistical community get together and share their statistical experiments, experiences and innovations.”
Communication
Abdulla Ahmed Al Suwaidi, Acting Director-General of Statistics Center- Abu Dhabi (SCAD) stressed the importance of participating in international meetings, conferences and scientific symposiums that focus on the work of national statistical centers. “These meetings play a great role in keeping all of us informed about the up-to-date international statistical reports.”
Support
On a similar note, Sheikh Mohammed bin Humaid Al Qassimi, Director of Sharjah Department of Statistics and Community Development (DSCD), said: “DSCD along with FCSA are participating in the international meetings and conferences with the aim in mind to support the statistical system in UAE.”
Issues
H.E. Dr Hajar Saeed Al Hubaishi, Executive Director of Ajman Statistics and Competitiveness Centre, commented on the delegation participation in the annual meeting: “This is the highest international statistical meeting and attendees did discuss numerous important statistical issues.”
Commitment
For his part, Dr. Ibrahim Saad, Director of the Fujairah Statistics Center, said that UAE participation in the annual meetings of the UN Statistical Commission is a proof of the commitment of the UAE wise leadership and government represented in its federal and local institutions to collect and process data in the manner that boosts efforts and ways to achieve the UAE National Agenda and UAE Centennial2071.
Efforts
H.E. Humaid Rashid Al Shamsi, Secretary-General of the Executive Council of Umm Al Quwain, put an accent on the commitment of the Emirate of Umm Al Quwain to coordinate and consolidate efforts with FCSA and national statistical centers and support them to help the delegation in their mission during the meetings and ensure their success.
Events
Reiterating the significance of this meeting, Dr Ibrahim Akum, Director of Center for Statistics and Studies in Ras Al Khaimah stated: “The annual meetings of the UN Statistical Commission are among the most important events in the development of the international statistical system. Participation in these meetings that includes a group of statistical experts keeps all attendees informed about the latest achievements in statistical discipline and data science worldwide.”
Workshops
Noteworthy, the agenda of the meetings included holding specialized workshops on the up-to-date methodologies and strategies of statistical work, IT and dissemination of statistical data. The agenda tackled six key themes on the current status of the data and indicators of SDGs 2030, basic principles of official statistics, open data, ways of developing regional statistics, national accounts, financial statistics and disaster statistics.