This
second quarter of 2000 saw us particularly
busy with a number of meetings and activities,
including the fifty-six session of the
Commission, which is an annual event when
members and associate members orient the
mandates for the secretariat.
Another important event
was the beginning of duties, on 1st July
2000 of the new Executive Secretary of
ESCAP, Mr. Kim Hak-Su. He is supportive
of statistical development for the region,
which will be of interest to our readers.
On the substantive front,
there were the meetings organized by the
Statistics Division in Bangkok, covering
the diverse areas and priorities of our
work programme. Only a short summary of
the final report is presented here, but
more information is generally available
on our Web site.
Some news items on conferences
and other news, including our regular
activities, complete this issue that we
hope you may find interesting: there is
a further feedback of the PARIS21 activities,
and some possible stimulating thinking
on the proposals for measuring the readiness
of countries for the digital era. As an
example of good practices in disseminating
statistical information, the ABS Statistical
Concepts Library is presented.
Good reading.
Meeting of heads of statistical offices on strengthening
statistical capacity in ASEAN countries, 10-11
April 2000, Bangkok
On 10 and 11 April 2000, the heads of the
national statistical offices of the Association
of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries
met in Bangkok to discuss the contents and the
implementation mechanisms of a project on strengthening
statistical capacity. Representatives from the
ASEAN secretariat, the United Nations Statistics
Division (UNSD), ESCAP Statistics Division,
the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Statistical
Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) also
participated.
Approved by the General Assembly and funded
through the Development Account, this project
will be implemented by the UNSD, in cooperation
with the other concerned organizations.
The project aims at strengthening national
statistical systems in the ten ASEAN countries
and cooperation among them. Statistical development
is the ultimate objective of this project. This
will include training in many fields such as
national accounts and satellite accounting,
development indicators, statistical organisation
and management. In particular, the availability
of standardized and comparable statistics for
policy making and programming in the region
will receive special attention.
By working closely with regional research and
training institutions, the project aims at reinforcing
existing south/south networks and creating opportunities
for experts to learn from their peers.
In addition, the project will create a critical
mass of expert statisticians in the ASEAN region,
who will be able to represent the region in
global forums.
The project will also involve the ASEAN secretariat
in areas such as enhancement of capabilities
in producing analytical reports on major economic
and social issues and drawing on national data
systems.
Furthermore, the project will upgrade technology
to create a platform for communication for data
exchange and dissemination in print and electronic
media.
Information technology will thus be more widely
used for maintaining linkages between countries
in the region and for the dissemination of statistical
information and results between producers and
users of statistics, including regional experts
and decision makers.
A steering committee, which includes the heads
of the national statistical offices of ASEAN
members, will drive the initiative. The steering
committee tentatively scheduled its second meeting
for March 2001, while the project is scheduled
to end in 2002.
The project includes the following activities:
Strengthening national
accounts and satellite accounting through
the implementation of relevant provisions
of the 1993 System of National Accounts:
Input-output analysis
Price statistics
Informal sector statistics
Satellite accounts
for tourism
Satellite accounts
for the environment
Classifications
Harmonizing development
indicators for the ASEAN countries:
General
development indicators with special focus
on poverty indicators
Early warning indicators
Strengthening statistical
organization and management:
Assessment
of statistical organization, legislation
and management
Developing user relations,
dissemination and marketing in statistics
Statistical organization
Good practices in
official statistics
Improving the use of
information technology for statistics
Future activities carried out under this project
will be reported in due course.
Regional workshop on statistics on gender issues,
1-5 May 2000, Bangkok
Gender Statistics is among the five priority
areas of the ESCAP programme of work in statistics.
The Statistics Division of ESCAP organized a
technical workshop entitled "Improving Statistics
on Gender Issues" to provide a forum for ESCAP
members to discuss methodologies and exchange
experiences on the topic.
Mr. Andrew J. Flatt, Director of the ESCAP
Statistics Division, opened the Workshop. He
thanked the United Nations Development Fund
for Women (UNIFEM) and the Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for having
provided support to the organization of the
current Workshop. He highlighted some key issues
and provided the background information on the
previous activities in the field of gender statistics
that were carried out by the ESCAP Statistics
Division in collaboration with several countries
and with other agencies, including UNIFEM and
SIDA. He informed the meeting that Gender Statistics
continued to be among the top priority areas
of the work programmes of the ESCAP Statistics
Division since 1995.
He outlined possible future activities, for
the second phase of the project, which would
be technically and financially supported by
UNIFEM and UNDP.
The Workshop considered four main modules:
Gender issues in development
Statistics and indicators
on gender issues
Compilation and presentation
of gender statistics
Plan for national and
regional work with statistics on gender issues.
Some of the main points raised in the workshop
are given below.
Gender Issues in Development
Definitions of basic terms and concepts used
in gender statistics were discussed. It was
noted that the term sex refers to the genetic/physiological
or biological characteristics of a person, which
indicates whether one is female or male. On
the other hand, gender is a social construction
and codification of differences between the
sexes and social relationships between women
and men. Sex characteristics are universal and
unchangeable. Biological differences between
women and men do not change naturally over time
and cultures. However the concept of what is
feminine or masculine depends on ideological,
historical, cultural, religious, ethnic, and
economic factors and can be changed by political,
economic or cultural influences. Statistics
should therefore be disaggregated by sex, not
by gender. Other terms that were defined were
the following: gender roles, practical and strategic
gender needs, gender equality, and gender equity.
Global consensus and regional gender issues
as articulated in the Beijing Platform For Action
(BPFA) and the Convention on the Elimination
of all forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) were also discussed.
The emerging issues considered important were
those on women in decision-making, violence
against women, value of unpaid work, and gender
budgeting.
The requirements from national statistical
systems are statistics for reporting for example
on Beijing +5 and every 4 years for CEDAW; monitoring
progress; analysis for policy formulation; and
awareness raising. The CEDAW reporting process
includes reports on the de jure situation and
critiques, de facto situation, analysis of discrepancies,
and plans for the period. The roles of the national
statistical systems as providers of sex-disaggregated
data, producers of statistics on gender issues,
and in analyzing and disseminating the statistics
were discussed.
Four discussion groups were formed according
to similarities of culture. The groups identified
gender issues for main areas of concern.
Statistics and Indicators on Gender Issues
This module considered the topics on identifying
statistics on gender issues, sources of data
for gender statistics, and assessing availability
and quality of needed statistics.
The attention of the participants was drawn
to a workshop document which contained excerpts
from the training material used in Phase I of
the Project on Improving Statistics on Gender
Issues.
The group discussion identified a list of statistics
and indicators for various uses.
Compilation and Presentation of Gender Statistics
Participants were introduced to some excerpts
of training materials used previously in Phase
I of the Project on Improving Statistics on
Gender Issues and on other materials on Promoting
Effective Census Data Dissemination In the Asia
Pacific Region.
Compilation and Presentation of Gender Statistics
Participants were introduced to some excerpts
of training materials used previously in Phase
I of the Project on Improving Statistics on
Gender Issues and on other materials on Promoting
Effective Census Data Dissemination In the Asia
Pacific Region.
In concluding the workshop the participants
suggested a number of ideas and recommendations:
Besides addressing data
gaps and data collection on gender issues,
it was recognized that analysis of data for
policy formulation and for programme policy
analyst had also become essential. Further,
presentation of statistical data on gender
issues in an attractive and easily understandable
format for policy makers, and dissemination
of data in a usable form should be given due
attention.
Mechanisms for promoting
utilization of the data outputs should be
created.
It would be difficult
to collect data on violence on women through
interview with a questionnaire. The observer,
rather than interviewer, has to be someone
who understands the women's situation and
culture very well. It was suggested that the
issue could be studied through case studies.
Since issues related
to gender change over time, gender statistics
should be robust to address new and emerging
gender issues.
Valuation of unpaid
work, especially by women, could help to provide
a measure for appreciation of contribution
made by women.
National statistical
offices working on gender issues should be
aware of the activities that other government
offices or international organizations do
on this field.
Users-producers dialogues
and interaction for improvement of statistics
on gender issues are still very good strategies
and should be strongly supported.
Gender statistics should
be integrated and published in regular publications
of the national statistical offices. The publication
could be a booklet on women and men, with
analytical notes and descriptive observations.
Gender concerns should
be mainstreamed into the national development
plan.
Advocacy strategies
and mechanisms should be developed.
In creating a national
network on women and gender issues, a core
focal points should be formed, comprising
statisticians, policy makers from various
government departments, officials in national
women's machinery's and NGOs, experts and
researchers.
A regional plan of
action on developing statistics on gender
issues should be formulated. ESCAP should
provide more and updated data for the region.
Training should be
provided to statisticians to understand gender
issues, and to technical staff to understand
statistics available and presented.
Mass media, such as
TV, radio, newspapers, and posters, should
be utilized to promote awareness on gender
issues and to reduce the negative portrayals
of women.
Conceptual and operational
framework for national level work for improving
statistics on gender issues should be developed.
In many cases gender
disaggregated statistics could not address
the actual role and status of women and men,
since those indicators were tailor-made for
specific purposes of some projects only. There
is a need to provide statistics on gender
issues to describe the real situation of women
in relation to men.
First subregional training workshop on environment
statistics, 8-19 May 2000, Bangkok
The Statistics Division of ESCAP is running
a project that aims at organizing four subregional
training workshops on environment statistics
in the ESCAP region. The workshops are being
funded by the government of the Netherlands.
The broad aim of the project is to improve national
capabilities of developing countries in the
region for identifying, collecting, processing,
analysing and utilizing the data needed for
formulating policies and programmes for environment
and sustainable development, as well as for
monitoring and evaluating the progress made.
The main objectives of the subregional workshops
are:
to train middle and senior
level officials from national statistical
offices and environmental agencies by exposing
them to methodological issues and recent developments
in the fields of environment statistics, indicators
and accounting, including definitions, classifications,
survey and estimation methodologies, and data
sources; and
to review the progress
made in the countries/areas of the region
in the field of environment statistics and
to provide participants a forum to share their
experiences on issues encountered and strategies
adopted to overcome some of the obstacles
faced. The programme of subregional workshops
consists of four modules: a general introduction
to environment statistics and its relation
to indicators and accounting; emissions and
environmental quality, including air, water,
and waste; land use, biodiversity and soil
degradation, remote sensing and geographical
information systems; and environmental accounting
in both monetary and physical terms.
The workshops are targeted at senior/middle
level officials who are or will be directly
involved in providing environment statistics
or a closely related field, both from the national
statistical agency and from the nodal department/agency
dealing with environmental concerns. Participants
are expected to prepare one consolidated country
paper describing the current state of the environment
statistics collection, compilation, dissemination
and use in their respective country/area.
The first subregional workshop was held in
Bangkok from 8 to 19 May 2000. Thirty-one participants
from fifteen countries/areas in East and South-East
Asia attended this workshop, along with resource
persons from Australia, Germany, Netherlands
and Sweden as well as FAO, OECD, UNEP, SIAP,
ECA and ADB. Lectures, thematic papers and country
papers on the above four modules were presented
by resource persons and country representatives.
In addition, a one day panel discussion covering
three sessions was organized and chaired by
Dr Christian Averous, of OECD.
The subjects considered during the sessions
were on achievements and shortcomings in the
improvement of environment statistics at national/international
levels, the institutional structure of environment
statistics at these levels, and further progress
in supply and use of environment statistics.
Additional information about the first subregional
workshop is available on the website of the
Statistics Division, at http://www.unescap.org/stat/envstat/envstatws.htm
Under the current project, three more subregional
workshops on environment statistics are being
planned, for South Asian countries in late 2000,
and for Central Asian countries and Pacific
island developing countries in 2001.
OECD/ESCAP
workshop on economic indicators, 22-25 May 2000,
Bangkok
The Joint OECD/ESCAP Workshop on Key Economic
Indicators, organized by the secretariats of
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) and the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP),
was held in Bangkok from 22 to 25 May 2000.
It was attended by representatives of 20 countries
and areas of the region and by other international
organizations.
The Workshop was opened by Mr. Flatt, Director
of the ESCAP Statistics Division and Mr. Derek
Blades, Head of the Division for Non-Members
in the OECD's Statistics Directorate.
They outlined the importance of the themes
under discussion for the region and agreed that
exchanging ideas and information would be highly
desirable in order to enable national statistical
services of the region to establish themselves
as a prominent players in the development process.
The importance of timely and accurate economic
indicators had been underlined by the recent
Asian Economic crisis: price indexes, foreign
trade indicators and employment and unemployment
statistics, all of them constituted, in various
ways, key statistical information to support
a sound management of the economy.
The Workshop covered the following topics:
Industrial Production
Indices;
Consumer Price Indices;
Producer Price Indices
and Wholesale Price Indices;
Labour Force Indicators;
Retail Trade Indicators;
International trade statistics;
Use of Economic indicators
for measuring economic trends;
OECD System of Leading
Indicators;
with the addition of two final sessions dedicated
to summarize the practices of ESCAP and those
of its members in using key economic indicators.
A brief summary of the discussions in each
of the above areas is presented here.
Industrial Production Indices
The main concerns of ESCAP countries concerning
Industrial Production Indices (IIP) compilation
are low response rates, possible inconsistencies
between data with high and low frequencies,
exclusion of establishments in the informal
sector. The problem of response rates was different
in the various countries that presented their
practices. Response rated varied from 65% to
100% and different policies were in place behind
these results.
There were cases, where respondents have the
obligation to answer, while others that do not
force respondents but rather try to meet their
requirements, adjust the questionnaires to their
business practices and reward them by provision
of free publications.
As far as inconsistencies between series of
IIP produced with various periodicity are concerned,
it was noted that these are not entirely inevitable
and they should not necessarily be regarded
as problematic. Indicators collected for differing
reference periods serve different purposes,
e.g. monthly IIP is for growth rates and annual
ones are for the level.
Consumer Price Indices
OECD presented a summary of the current international
guidelines for calculation of the CPI, which
date back to ILO 1989 Manual on CPIs. However,
participants were informed that the United Nations
Statistical Commission had recently established
an Inter-Secretariat Working Group to develop
these standards and to produce a set of integrated
handbooks on price index methodology. The CPI
handbook is expected to be published in March
2001.
The presentation also covered the use of the
various CPIs in the measurement of inflation,
compensations, and as deflators, and compilation
issues such as sources and weighting of data,
item and outlet selection, price collection
and specific aspects of index aggregation. It
also highlighted how users might have find difficulty
in identifying the "right" CPI for their need,
and some suggestions to solve this problem.
Participants discussed their countries' practices
and in-depth discussions on common problems
took place. The issue of treatment and inclusion
of goods and services purchased over the Internet
was also discussed.
Producer Price Indices (PPI) and Wholesale
Price Indices (WPI)
It was recalled that the current international
guidelines for PPIs were set out in the UN 1979
Manual on PPIs for Industrial Goods. It noted
that the United Nations is coordinating the
drafting of a new PPI Manual, expected to be
published in July 2001.
Some concerns that were raised during the discussion
were on the scope of WPIs, which is often unclear.
WPIs may be expected to act as leading indicators
of consumer price inflation, but often do not
perform as well as might be expected.
In collecting raw data for PPIs, it was noted
that firms may be more reluctant to provide
prices than other forms of data, due to confidentiality
concerns, but some countries explained how they
could limit this concern through personal contacts
and via local offices of NSOs.
Some issues on sampling for these particular
indexes were discussed. As PPI/WPI sample sizes
are very small in comparison to CPI samples,
it was felt vital that every price is carefully
verified. Price collection forms must give clear
instructions to respondents on how to make replacements,
and must contain fields for recording detailed
descriptions of the products and transactions
being priced.
Labour Force Indicators
The OECD stressed the importance of identifying
users and uses as the starting point for defining
labour force programme requirements. As illustration
it proposed a classification of uses into three
groups, namely
data required for industrial
competitivity analyses;
data for labour market
and social programmes;
data for wage settlements.
Most countries indicated that their primary
source of labour force data was a labour force
survey conducted quarterly, annually or less
frequently, and that, in addition, they obtain
data from establishment surveys and/or administrative
sources.
Participants indicated that with relatively
minor exceptions, their countries followed the
guidelines embedded in the resolutions emanating
from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
All countries indicated that they used a week
as the reference period in the definition of
employment. Cases where the reference period
was changed to a longer period proved to be
not satisfactorily and tended to overestimate
employment.
Most countries reported the lower age limit
of 15 years for the active population, the exception
being Bangladesh which has it at 10 years. Indonesia
reported that it, too, had it at 10 years but
had moved to 15 to be more in line with other
countries. It was noted that setting an age
limit that depended on school leaving age was
not appropriate in countries where practices
of child-labour exist.
Iran noted that its labour force survey not
only determined the labour force status of a
respondent according to ILO guidelines but also
asked the respondent directly for their own
assessment of whether they were employed or
unemployed.
It was noted that, due to differences in practices,
such age thresholds, data comparability between
ESCAP countries was still weak. Furthermore,
measures of under-employment also needed to
be developed in ESCAP countries in accordance
with the ILO 1998 resolution.
Retail Trade Indicators
It was noted that monthly retail trade-volume
indices of OECD countries served primarily to
identify the short-term (month-to-month) movements
in consumer behaviour within each country and
for groups of countries. Thus, in many OECD
countries, these indices are used in compiling
quarterly GDP. It was also suggested that the
qualitative data from business opinion surveys
in the retail sector also provide very useful
indicators of movements.
One of the main problems in compiling retail
trade indicators for several of the ESCAP countries
was the heterogeneous nature of the economies,
especially in those cases where the informal
sector had a large market share.
It seemed that some other problems affecting
ESCAP countries include the difficulty to compile
monthly data, and low response rates. It was
pointed out that the process of adjusting seasonal
fluctuations for retail indexes in ESCAP countries
should be carefully adapted to the different
customs, traditions, holidays, and religions.
International trade statistics
In reporting their practices, countries noted
that the UN guidelines, International Merchandise
Trade Statistics: Concepts and Definitions,
(Series M, No. 52, Rev 2), are generally followed
in the ESCAP region. All countries use the Harmonised
System (HS) as their basic commodity classification
but with the addition of extra digits to fit
national requirements. However, some deviations
from the guidelines existed.
Customs documentation is still provided in
hard copy in all countries except Hong Kong-China
which moved to an electronic system in April
2000. Indonesia was co-operating with the Australian
Bureau of Statistics to introduce electronic
reporting in the near future. Hard-copy documentation
was seen as the chief impediment to faster release
dates, although publication delays were relatively
short and most countries publish monthly trade
statistics at an aggregated level within one
month after the reference month.
Several countries mentioned the difficulties
of ensuring that non-dutiable merchandise was
correctly valued. Customs officials had less
interest in ensuring correct valuation of imports
that do not generate revenue for government.
With the widespread movement towards freer trade,
that problem was likely to increase.
Unrecorded border trade (land and sea), common
in several countries of the region, included
trade in high value narcotics. Participants
indicated that further clarification was needed
regarding the treatment of software and data
sold on electronic media.
Use of Economic indicators for measuring
economic trends Participants were briefed
on OECD practices on
Transformation of short
term economic statistics for short monitoring
and forecasting;
Identification of indicators
to predict cyclical turning points;
Use of qualitative statistics
from business and consumer opinion surveys;
Presentation of data
and metadata for different user groups.
Several participants raised questions about
consumer and business opinion surveys.
Those included questions about the formulation
of questions so they were properly understood
by respondents, identification of the correct
person to complete the questionnaires and how
to ensure that respondents based their answers
exclusively on their own situation.
OECD System of Leading Indicators
In discussing on the basis of paper presented
by OECD, participants raised questions about
the weighting system for composite indicators. It was explained that the normalisation procedure
used by OECD in constructing the composite index
implicitly assign equal weights to all components'
series, as the danger of varying weights was
that a given weighting pattern may be appropriate
for a particular cycle but would not work for
the next one.
The representative of OECD also provided some
information on OECD programmes of assistance
for helping countries in constructing composite
leading indicators.
Some news from the proceedings of the fifty-sixth
session of the Commission, 1-7 June 2000, Bangkok
The annual session of the Commission was
held this year from 1 to 7 June 2000. Among
the various topics under discussion, some emerging
issues concerning statistics are briefly reported
here.
The Commission noted and supported initiatives
in contributing to statistical capacity building
for developing countries of the region, such
as those covered by the PARIS 21 (see the other
article in this same issue) consortium. It also
agreed on the usefulness of cooperation between
international organizations in providing technical
assistance.
As far as activities of the secretariat are
concerned there was a general recognition of
their usefulness, and various comments were
made on how to best suit the secretariat's activities
to the needs of the region.
A significant comment was made with regard
to the city groups, and in particular to the
suggestion that a city group for discussions
on methodologies related to the measurement
of the electronic commerce be created in our
region. The Commission welcomed such an idea
as many of the interventions cited explicitly
the importance of this topic. It remains to
be seen whether or not this idea will find concrete
steps along the way to form a group of discussion.
Some attention was paid to statistical standards,
such as the Special Data Dissemination Standard
(SDDS) and the General Data Dissemination System
(GDDS). They were seen as desirable targets
for many statistical offices of the region,
while recognizing that national statistical
agencies should be provided with additional
resources to enable them to respond to SDDS/GDDS
requirements, especially where adherence to
the standards might otherwise distort statistical
priorities.
The issue of quality of data and the importance
of well-designed mechanisms for exchanging reliable
statistical data was a key element in the international
financial and economic monitoring and surveillance
system. It agreed that the indicators measuring
the state of the financial market and the direction
of capital flows needed to be not only comparable
among the countries but also compatible with
other national economic indicators.
The Commission recognized the efforts of countries
to implement the 1993 System of National Accounts.
It suggested that the focus of technical assistance
should be on in-depth training and workshops
or seminars at the regional and international
levels on various aspects of the 1993 SNA, with
implementation modalities such as technical
advisory or consultancy services, the preparation
of handbooks or manuals on important topics,
and the provision of hardware and software facilities
in support of the compilation of national accounts.
The Commission also recognized the importance
of international economic and social classifications,
and took note of the efforts of countries to
adopt revisions to international standard classification
systems.
Another area of interest was about the 2000
round of censuses. The Commission noted that
countries had made a good use of new technologies,
and that the exploitation of IT can significantly
help in carrying out operations in the field
of censuses and population statistics. Some
suggestions on the needs of countries for assistance
by the secretariat in this field were also made.
The Commission suggested that ESCAP should
continue to play a coordinating role in gender
statistics in the region, and promote exchange
of experience among member countries, since
some countries had good experience in conducting
national or large-scale time-use surveys.
The Commission suggested that the Committee
on Statistics should contribute to establishing
standards on urban and rural poverty measures,
though poverty measurement among the countries
differed in terms of statistical methodology.
The subject of environment statistics, also
belonging to the five priorities areas of work
of the secretariat for the biennium 2000-2001,
received attention and important feedback. Training
activities of the secretariat in this field
were considered very timely and appropriate.
The Commission endorsed the 2000-2001 work
programme of the secretariat in statistics.
It suggested that the government finance classification,
recently revised by the International Monetary
Fund, should also be included as a priority
area among those already identified, namely
the 1993 SNA, poverty statistics, gender statistics,
statistics on the informal sector, and environment
statistics.
A
warm welcome to Mr. Kim Hak-Su, our new Executive
Secretary, ready to inspire ESCAP's programmes
The United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed
Mr. Kim Hak-Su of the Republic of Korea
as Executive Secretary of the Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (ESCAP). He replaced Mr. Adrianus
Mooy of Indonesia, whose term expired
on 30 June 2000. Mr. Kim began his work
on July 1st, at ESCAP.
Mr. Kim has been the Ambassador for International
Economic Affairs of the Republic of Korea
and a prominent economist. He has vast
experience in central banking, development
planning, government think-tanks and private
sector management, as well as international
organizations.
Mr. Kim began his professional career in
1960 as a central bank economist, served as
Secretary to the Minister of Commerce and Industry
in 1969 and worked for the London Representative
Office of the Bank of Korea (1971-1973). He
joined Daewoo Corporation in 1977 as Executive
Director and served ACWOO International Corporation
in New York as President.
Mr. Kim worked as Chief Planning Officer and
Chief Technical Adviser under the United Nations
Department for Technical Cooperation and Development,
during most of the 1980s, in island State countries,
such as Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. He
joined the Korea Institute for International
Economic Policy as a Senior Research Fellow,
researching and publishing on issues regarding
international economic cooperation during 1989
to 1993.
He served as President of the Hanil Banking
Institute before taking up the recent post of
Secretary-General of the Colombo Plan, based
in Colombo, Sri Lanka (1995-1999). He revitalized
the 24-member country intergovernmental Colombo
Plan in Asia and the Pacific, stressing human
resources development and focusing on South-South
cooperation.
He was appointed Ambassador for International
Economic Affairs in June 1999, attending various
international meetings as the head of his Government's
delegation.
Mr. Kim was born in a rural area of Wonju,
Republic of Korea, studied as an undergraduate
at Yonsei University, earned a master's degree
from Edinburgh University, United Kingdom, and
a Ph.D. in economics from the University of
South Carolina, United States.
In a recent interview with The Korea Times,
Mr. Kim noted that it was important for developing
countries to produce reliable statistical data
which was a basis for future assistance by financial
institutions. He added that one of the ESCAP's
main functions could be the provision of technical
assistance to help the countries to produce
reliable statistics.
Mr. Kim also said he would launch efforts to
work out demand-driven projects by surveying
the needs of end-users of the projects, who
are our member countries.
In particular, he will focus on the improvement
of information technology in underdeveloped
countries, which are being marginalized in the
rapidly developing global society.
As part of his efforts to give a facelift
to the ESCAP, Kim said he plans to work out
schemes to enable the ESCAP to play the role
of "intellectual leader'' in this region by
setting out a vision for the future direction
of development.
Conferences
/ Training opportunities / Other news
The ABS Statistical Concepts Library:
a CD-ROM product, and also a Web site.
This is not the first time we talk about the
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Web site;
previously we wrote about their on-line working
papers regarded as a tool useful for consultation
on ABS' methodological research in statistics.
The ABS Statistical Concepts Library presents
concepts, definitions, standards and similar
topics, that it uses to produce their regular
outputs. Although not all users of official
statistics appreciated it, statisticians
know well how important it is to base their
statistics production on clear and well defined
concepts.
The ABS Library not only helps users to understand
statistics produced and disseminated by ABS,
but also offers useful reference material for
other national statistical services which are
in the process of refining their standards.
Owing to the diversity of the Asia and Pacific
region in terms of cultures and economies, the
contents might not fit perfectly several
of its countries and areas, however the framework
of the Library and the organization of the various
concepts provide a good example of a methodological
framework for developing official statistics.
ABS recently produced a CD-ROM with its Statistical
Concepts Library. The same information
is available on their Web site: http://www.abs.gov.au/.
Click the "site map" button, you will find the
link to the Library.
Progresses on PARIS 21, the consortium for
PARtnerships In Statistics for development in
the 21st Century
After we presented PARIS 21 in the issue 116
of this newsletter, there are some new developments.
A meeting of the consortium took place on 22-23
June 2000 in Paris. Details are available at
the PARIS 21 Web site.
The publication Better World for All: Progress
towards the international development goals,
a very attractive work co-authored by the United
Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), and the OECD, was made available
in electronic format in the Web site. Follow
the links from http://www.paris21.org/
and learn more on the most recent compendium
of data related to the various developmental
goals set up by major global conferences in
the '90s. Related links are available, together
with data and sources. The entire publication
is downloadable in Acrobat format. Definitely,
it is worth a visit.
The digital revolution has implications
for statisticians, as the Regional Round Table
on Information Technology and Development asks
for a Composite Index of Readiness for the digital
era
The importance of Information Technology (IT)
as a tool for development, became clear and
agreed upon by most of the countries in the
world. To discuss the role of IT, and to provide
a regional input to discussions held at ECOSOC,
a Regional Round Table on Information Technology
and Development met in New Delhi from 21 to
22 June 2000.
Recommendations, for action of governments
and international organizations, were issued
on the wide subject of IT, and the first of
these recommendations is of concern and deserves
a special attention from statisticians of the
region.
In fact, the Round Table has asked that a Composite
Index of Readiness for the digital era be created.
This index was seen as a useful tool for policy-makers
in identifying issues or in order to assign
priorities to their development plans.
So, what this index would look like?
The participants to the Round Table identified
some areas which should be covered by the index.
These areas are:
Access to facilities, such
as information infrastructure; basic telecommunication
infrastructure; Internet availability and
affordability; Network speed and quality;
bandwidth availability; availability of hardware,
software, services and support in the local
market;
Education and training
facilities;
Networking of the society:
incorporation of information and communication
technology (ICT) into the way that things
are done in the society, the economy and government
and the proliferation of online communities;
Network policy: a supportive
policy environment, including telecommunications
policy and cyber-laws;
Evolution of appropriate
ownership and management models of network
resources;
Evolution of appropriate
business models that spur the flow of private
investment into the digitization of the society
and economy;
Degree of optimisation
of costs by full use of economies afforded
by the convergence of technologies: scope
for cost reduction and increasing the spread
and reach of network access.
Of course the users and producers of statistics
of the region will have a say on this proposal.
Some additional areas may need to be added. Some
methodology may need to be established, and perhaps
new forms of collecting information may be devised.
The tasks would likely be carried out through
newer and stronger linkages between statistical
offices and government agencies dealing with IT.
What the national statistical offices will have
to do is yet to be defined by their governments,
but chances are that an increased effort toward
collecting and compiling statistical information
on IT matters will be needed more in future. ESCAP,
was considered by the Round Table as one possible
executing subject for this task. Some related
discussions on measuring "IT for development"
is likely to be included in future regional meetings.
Publications
released by the Statistics Division
Statistical Indicators
for Asia and the Pacific, Volume XXX, No.1,
April 2000
Statistical Yearbook
for Asia and the Pacific, 1999
Statistical Newsletter,
No. 116 & 117
Visitors
to the Statistics Division
Mr. Bart van Ark,
Professor, Faculty of Economics, University
of Gröningen.
Mr. Kesrat Sukasam,
Senior Officer, Environment, The ASEAN Secretariat,
Jakarta.
Mr. Romeo L. Manalo,
Minister and Consul General, Embassy of the
Philippines, Bangkok.
Mr. Mendel R. Rivera,
Attaché, Embassy of the Philippines,
Bangkok.
Missions
of ESCAP Statistics Division Staff
Mr. Andrew J. Flatt, Director, Statistics
Division, undertook a mission to:
Paris (21-23 June):
To represent ESCAP at the meeting of the PARIS21
Consortium and a related meeting with donors.
Mr. M.K. Siddiqui, Chief, Statistics
Development Section, undertook a mission to:
Beijing (26-28
April): To represent ESCAP at the 19th Population
Census Conference held in Beijing.
Ms. Selma Guven, Statistician, Statistics
Development Section, undertook a mission to:
Semarkand (26-28
April): To represent ESCAP at the Inception
Workshop on Institutional Strengthening and
Collection of Environment Statistics (Phase
II).
Ms. Heidi Arboleda, Regional Adviser
on National Accounts, visited the following
countries:
Islamic Republic of
Iran (2-14 April): To provide advisory
services to the Central Bank of Iran on issues
related to implementing of the 1993 SNA;
Viet Nam (8-12
May): To provide advisory services to the
General Statistical Office on the compilation
of institutional sector accounts, quarterly
GDP and regional accounts;
Maryland, U.S.A. (8-9 June): To participate in the review of
the draft handbook on non profit institutions
in the System of National Accounts and to
plan the activities on piloting the handbook
in selected countries;
Philippines (25
June-8 July): To provide advisory services
on estimating changes on volume measure of
national accounts and compilation of regional
accounts.
Mr. Nuri M. Ozsever, ESCAP Adviser on
Population Data Processing and Database Management
with the UNFPA/CST in Bangkok, visited the following
countries:
Mongolia (3-14
April): To assist the National Statistical
Office in reviewing and improving data processing
system for the 2000 census;
Lao PDR (23 April-5
May): To organize and conduct a workshop on
ISSA for the staff of the National Statistical
Centre;
Mongolia (26 June-7
July): To assist the Population Teaching and
Research Centre of Mongolian University in
developing a data processing system for migration
survey.
Ms. Luisa T. Engracia, ESCAP Adviser
on Population Statistics with the UNFPA/CST
in Kathmandu, visited the following countries:
Bangladesh (16-30
April): To participate in the Annual Review
of the Country Programme and to review the
progress of the UNFPA assisted project on
Strengthening the Cartographic Capability
of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
India (1-4 May):
To participate in the Annual Review of India's
Country Programme, specifically, for reviewing
the Sub-Programme on Population and Development
Strategies;
Tajikistan (8-19
May): To provide technical assistance in the
formulation of the survey design for a study
on "Knowledge, Attitude, and Behaviour towards
Sexuality and Reproductive Health of Adolescents".
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