Modernization of Statistical
Production and Services
in Asia-Pacific
Marko Javorsek, Statistics Division, ESCAP
International Seminar on Modernizing Official Statistics: Meeting
Productivity and New Data Challenges
24 - 26 October 2013, Tianjin, PR China
1
ESCAP events in modernization
 Side event to the Committee on Statistics, Second session –
Modernizing statistical information systems, Bangkok 2010
 Expert Group Meeting: Opportunities and advantages of
enhanced collaboration on statistical information
management in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok 2011
 SIAP Management Seminar 2011 – Shifting from “stove-pipe”
data producer to “information service” provider
 Practical advisory workshop: Supporting effective use of
information and communication technology in population
census operations, Moscow 2012
– GSBPM & SDMX
 Expert group meeting: MSIS, Bangkok/Paris 2013
What are the main drivers of
modernization?
 Creation of a more adaptive and cost-effective information
management environment through stronger collaboration
– Processes that are more agile and quality assured, while
requiring less resources to operate and maintain
 Modernize information systems to address the evolving field
of statistics and maintain relevance across developed and
developing countries
 Regional collaboration and influence global directions
– Collaborative efforts are likely to be more cost-effective
and of higher quality
Specificities of Asia-Pacific region in the
field of modernisation
 Cost-effectiveness benefit was assessed to be of less
immediate priority
 Improved quality could be taken up as a key objective
 Concepts, standards and tools are relatively new to a large
number of countries in the region
 NSOs in the region are most often structured by statistical
areas or domains
 No transnational legislation on statistics
 The least developed countries lack the full range of
methodological and information technology expertise
Regional perspective on modernization
 CST 3 (2012) proposes the establishment of
– High-level strategic body
– Network of Experts
 Strategic Advisory Body for the Modernization of Statistical Production
and Services in Asia and the Pacific (SAB-AP)
– The mission is “To raise awareness and build capacity, particularly related
to concepts, methods and standards, to support national modernization
efforts”
 The Body has 7 members (Australia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Rep. of
Korea, Samoa, Viet Nam) and is chaired by Australia
 First meeting of the body in November 2013 in Japan (next month)
MSIS 2013
 In 2013 ESCAP joins the organization and MSIS; first time in
Asia-Pacific in 2010 in the Republic of Korea
 23-25 April 2013 held in 2 venues joined by live web link
– Paris – hosted by OECD
– Bangkok – hosted by ESCAP
 Joint sessions were held Bangkok afternoon and Paris
morning time
 The meeting discussed the following substantive themes:
– Architecture;
– Streamlining statistical production;
– Innovation;
– Collaboration.
Outcomes of the MSIS 2013 (Bangkok)
 Participants recommended that
– the work of the expert community centre around key priority areas,
– interested practitioners and experts to gather in smaller working
groups.
 Key priority areas:
– Strengthening national statistical systems (coordination, information
flow in decentralized systems, etc.)
– Generic Standard Business Process Model (GSBPM)
– Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX)
– e-collection
– Data dissemination
– Big data
Figure 1: Schematic depiction of the HLG, SAB-AP and working groups
MSIS 2014
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14-16 April 2014 held in 2 locations simultaneously:
– Dublin, Ireland hosted by the Central Statistics Office of
Ireland
– Bangkok (TBC) hosted by ESCAP
Preparations on-going, call for papers will be sent out soon
The meeting schedule is centered around the following
substantive themes:
– How IT can contribute to changing organizational
culture;
– Standards-based modernization;
– Innovation;
– Architecture.
ADB/ESCAP Project on SDMX
 Direct outcome from the MSIS 2013 EGM
 Working group (WG-SDMX) will be established under the
auspices of the SAB-AP
 The primary focus of the project will be to promote the use of
SDMX among national statistical systems in the region and
build regional capacities in applying it
 The project will focus on
– Mapping of DSD for data exchange (reuse global DSD),
– Capacity building on using tools to support automated
data exchange (e.g. Eurostat SDMX-RI).
ADB/ESCAP Project on SDMX (cont’d)
 Focus on economic statistics indicators (ADB Key Indicators),
most likely limited to NA or BoP in the first stage
 Take into account the specific needs of other international
organizations collecting economic data (e.g. OECD, IMF,
UNSD, WB, etc.)
 In the pilot phase focus on 4 to 5 countries in Asia-Pacific
 Timeline:
– Scoping phase: November 2013 – February 2014
– Implementation phase: March – December 2014
Thank you!