Working Party on the Application of New Technology to Population Data
Fifth Meeting
21 October 1999
Bangkok

1. The Working Party expressed satisfaction that by all accounts the Workshop had been highly successful and that its impact was quite visible in the intervention and the comments made by the participants.
2. The Working Party noted that the project RAS/96/P12 had very effectively contributed to the sharing of information and interaction on the application of new technology to population data.  It recommended that arrangements for such interaction should continue and that the Working Party should hold its final meeting toward the end of the year 2000, possibly in October.  Since project funds would be available in the year 2000, the Working Party agreed to continue functioning until its final meeting.
3. The Working Party recommended that the report to the Working Group of Statistical Experts should include the recommendations of the Workshop, as well as those arising from the five meetings of the Working Party.
4. The Working Party extensively deliberated on its own future.  It was felt that the regional cooperation in promoting effective application of new technology to population data should be continued.  It felt that the Working Party had very successfully discharged its terms of reference and indeed had gone beyond them in terms of achievements.  It recommended that the final meeting of the Working Party should focus on analysis, dissemination, and storage of population data.
5. The Working Party also deliberated on ways of continuing the modality of technical cooperation already established by the project, by such means as forming a working group of experts on the application of new technology to population data open to all members and associate members of ESCAP.  It suggested that at the sixth meeting other countries should be invited as observers.  It recommended that these ideas be considered at the eleventh session of the Working Group of Statistical Experts for comments and endorsement.