KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has been elected as the Chair of the 18th session of the Governing Council (GC) of the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) taking place in Chiba, Japan on Dec 12 and 13.
The country is represented by the Malaysian Statistics Department chief statistician, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin and Malaysia Statistics Training Institute (ILSM) director Zuraidy Zainal Abidin.
In a statement on Monday, the department said after 10 years of being an observer, Malaysia was elected to the GC SIAP as a member for the 2022-2024 term during the 78th Session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on May 24, 2022 in Bangkok and had received overwhelming votes from Asia and Pacific member countries.
It further said that in the 18th session, the GC will discuss matters related to the provision of training according to the needs of different member states, including matters arising from the 17th session, new challenges related to training, the director's report on his achievements in 2022 and the proposed work plan for 2023.
In his chairmanship statement, Mohd Uzir said he sincerely hoped that SIAP could create a welcoming environment as well as provide the leadership and experience required to continue the council's important work over the next three years.
"Malaysia will continue to work with the entire team of the Asia and Pacific statistical community to expand statistical capacity-building programmes and activities to assist member states in improving the quality and availability of statistics, particularly in implementing and monitoring the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and addressing emerging issues.
"We strongly support SIAP's efforts to meet the objectives and expectations outlined in the SIAP Strategic Plan 2021 to 2025 to improve statistical systems that provide information for decision-making," he said.
SIAP is a professional statistical training centre in Chiba, Japan that has been operating since 1970 and was granted ESCAP regional institution status with the formation of the GC in 1995. The council is made up of a representative from the Japanese government and eight representatives elected by other members and associate members of ESCAP.
Aside from Japan, the current elected members of the council are Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, which has aided developing countries in their human resource development by training officials in the Asia-Pacific region and other parts of the world, said the department.
The council's goal is to review the Institute's operations and approve its annual and long-term work plans, it added. – Bernama
