Ninth Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical Offices of East Asian Countries & Asian Statistical Forum

Date/Venue:

23-25 August 2000/Gotenba, Japan

Organizer:

Statistics Bureau and Statistics Center of Japan

Aim

The Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical Offices of East Asian Countries aims at promoting development of official statistics in this region through informal exchanges of experiences and thoughts among the heads of national statistical offices. Since its initiation in 1980, the meeting has been held about every 2 years. Taking this opportunity, the Asian Statistical Forum was held. At the International Statistical Forum hosted by the National Statistical Office of Korea in Taejon in September 1999, it was agreed to hold a forum for official and academic statisticians to exchange views and ideas on various matters in connection with official statistics in an early occasion. As it was convenient to utilize the opportunity when many chief statisticians get together, we decided to hold the Asian Statistical Forum. Statisticians in private and academic sectors from Australia, Korea and Japan had opportunity to exchange views with the statisticians in public sector.

Theme

The overall theme of the Meeting was "Emerging Issues in National Statistical Systems in a Period of Uncertainty and Rapid Changes" with the three sub-themes: "change in the data collection environment", "preparation and compilation of official statistics in response to the rapid changes of society and economy" and "usefulness and quality of official statistics".
We adopted these themes in consideration of the rapid changes in the environment which surrounds official statistics in recent years. In Japan, there have been and still are active debates on the accuracy of official statistics as well as the administration and political reforms. In the background of these issues, there exists the trend of rapid globalization as well as the technical innovations such as IT. There have been a lot of changes surrounding the official statistics. They are not inherent to Japan, but are of quite a general and universal nature. Therefore, we have raised the above-mentioned theme and sub-themes.

Programme

Wednesday 23 August

13:30 Opening remarks [Tatsuo INOUE, Japan]

13:45 Adoption of Agenda

14:00 - 15:00 Session I

1. What Is Data Quality: A Distillation of Experience [Mrs. Carol CARSON, IMF]
2. Communicating on Quality of Statistics with Users [Mr. Takanobu NEGI, Japan]

15:30 - 17:00 Session II

3. Recent Development of Official Statistics of China [Mr. QIU Xiaohua, China]
4. The Statistical Approach to the Digital Economy [Mr. Young-Dae YOON, Korea]
5. Poverty Statistics and Indicators: How Often Should They be Measured? [Mr. Isidoro P. DAVID, ADB]

Thursday 24 August

9:00 - 10:30 Session III

6. Statistical System of Cambodia: Activities and Emerging Issues [Mr. SAN Sy Than, Cambodia]
7. Quality of Official Statistics [Mr. Bounthavy SISOUPHANTHONG, Laos]
8. Statistical Development in Myanmar [Dr. SEIN TIN, Myanmar]

11:00 - 12:00 Session IV

9. Improvement of Data Collection ? An Important Issue in Development of Viet Nam Statistics [Dr. LE Manh Hung, Viet Nam]
10. Problems and Challenges for Data Collection in Thailand: Experience from the 2000 Census [Mrs. Varai WORAMONTRI, Thailand]

13:30 - 15:00 Session V

11. he 2000 Population Census of Indonesia: Source of Small Area Statistics [Mr. SUGIARTO, Indonesia]
12. Emerging Issues in Conducting the Malaysian Population and Housing Census 2000 [Mr. Aziz OTHMAN, Malaysia]
13. Establishing Ownership in the Philippines Census 2000 [Mr. Tomas AFRICA, Philippines]

15:30 - 17:00 Session VI

14. Meeting New Challenges in Data Collection: The Singapore Experience [Dr. Paul CHEUNG, Singapore]
15. Emerging Issues in Australian Official Statistics [Mr. Tim SKINNER, Australia]
    Appendix B. Measurement of the rapid economic changes

Friday 25 August

9:00 - 10:15 Session VII

16. Managing an Interdependent Statistical System [Ms. Dianne MACASKILL, New Zealand]
17. Emerging Issues in Australian Official Statistics [Mr. Dennis TREWIN, Australia]
    Appendix A. Coping with the changing environment for data collection
    Appendix C&D. Relevance and quality of official statistics

10:15 - 10:30 Closing (1)

11:00 - 12:00 Closing (2)

13:30 - 15:00 Session ASF-I

1. The Current Status and Future Direction of Statistical Training/Education for Information Society for the Promotion of Cooperation between Official and Academic Statisticians [Prof. Yunkee AHN, Korea]
2. Importance of Field Surveys in Information Society [Prof. Kei TAKEUCHI, Japan]
3. Enhanced Statistical Activities by Non-Governmental Organizations [Mr. Akihiko ITO, Japan]

15:30 - 17:00 Session ASF-II

4. On the Future Development of Asian Statistical Forum [Prof. Jaechang LEE, Korea]