Vice President U Henry Van Thio, Chairman of the Central Committee for Accurate and High Quality Statistics, addressed the committee’s meeting at the Ministry of Planning and Finance yesterday morning.

In his address to the meeting the Vice President said the committee was upgraded and reformed in 2018 and was seen to have completed the National Strategy for Development of Statistics (NSDS) Action Plan. All were urged to maintain the momentum of progress in 2019. This was the second meeting of the newly upgraded and reformed committee.

The Statistics Law enacted in early 2018 had been in effect since 22 January 2019. Ten statistic sector wise work groups were formed to implement NSDS.

Relevant work groups were learnt to keep NSDS Action Plan as a Living Document and implementing it. Cooperation among cluster departments were also learnt to have strengthened.

Relevant Union Ministers and state/region planning and finance ministers were urged to guide relevant statistics work groups on allocation of resources required for accuracy of statistics and formation of statistics units.

It was an honor to see Myanmar Statistics Forum 2018 held for the first time as a platform for improving relations between publishers and users of statistical information, to provide statistical information and for cooperation among stakeholders. Action Plans for cooperation among stakeholders were established at the forum.

The practice and habit of Data Culture and Statistical Literacy must spread not only to departments but also to private businesses and the people. Myanmar Statistics Forum should be held once a year as a platform to raise Statistics Literacy and cooperation among Stakeholders.

The Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (MSDP) was approved just as countries of the world were implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Statistics that reflects the present moment was required in drawing the MSDP. A National Indication Framework would be designated and measured in implementing the MSDP.

Data and statistics were required to be recorded at each stage of the work process in order to monitor the implementation of the plan. Cooperation among relevant ministerial departments was important for the establishment of the national index framework, acquisition of data, calculation and measurement matters.

As implementation of the Statistics Law there must be consistent, accurate and timely ground statistics for development of the country. In this regard participation of all Stakeholders was needed; also there was a need to expand statistics cooperation mechanism between ministerial departments, central level and state/region governments.

Committee members and work groups were urged to participate enthusiastically in the Central Committee for Accurate and High Quality Statistics meeting and provide detailed discussion and suggestions.

According to the saying “Better Data, Better Statistics, Better Life” only with quality national statistics system can there be information to create development policies, projects and economic environment for policy makers, planners, private businesses and socio-economic researchers.
Government departments, development partners, private sector, civil society organizations, and media representatives were urged to cooperate under the leadership of Central Committee for Accurate and High Quality Statistics to obtain good outcome and for statistics system development to raise the socio-economic lives of the people, said the Vice President.

Next, Central Committee Vice Chairman Union Minister U Soe Win explained about implementing statistics work processes, publishing of quality statistics and strengthening statistics coverage.

Afterwards, Central Committee secretary Central Statistical Organization (CSO) Director General Dr. Wah Wah Maung explained about central committee meetings held, decisions made at central committee meeting 1/2018, works conducted on enacting Statistics Law, surveys conducted, capacity building works and publications made by CSO.

Central Committee members Union Minister Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, U Thant Sin Maung, U Win Khaing, Dr. Than Myint, U Han Zaw, Dr. Win Myat Aye, Central Bank of Myanmar Governor U Kyaw Kyaw Maung, Nay Pyi Taw Council member U Aung Myin Tun, state/region ministers and officials then conducted sector wise discussions on accurate and quality statistics followed by heads of statistical work groups explaining about sector wise works, status of collecting animal census and collection of mid-year census.

Chairman of the Central Committee for Accurate and High Quality Statistics Vice President U Henry Van Thio commented on the discussions and explanations and delivered a closing remark. He said accurate and quality statistics were the image of the country. Therefore, for the country to have a good image the country’s statistics must be accurate and of high quality. He urged for the successful implementation of Data Base Centre on statistics. Projects were drawn with statistics in establishing a country. As such having accurate statistics was important for the country and all were to work together on it. Having an accurate and quality statistics was something that couldn’t be done in a short time as it is was long term work. First was to have accurate and quality statistics and second was to push toward using it practically. All were urged to cooperate and participate in the preparation for mid-year census and agriculture census. A true socio-economic situation would be reflected only with accurate statistics. Only then could policies be changed as required and allocation, monitoring and assessment of projects and budget could be made, said the Vice President.

The following officials attended the event: Central Committee Vice Chairman Union Minister U Soe Win, committee members Union Ministers Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, U Thant Sin Maung, U Win Khaing, Dr. Than Myint, U Han Zaw, Dr. Win Myat Aye, Central Bank of Myanmar Governor U Kyaw Kyaw Maung, Nay Pyi Taw Council member U Aung Myin Tun, state/region ministers, Central Bank of Myanmar Deputy Governor U Soe Thein, Permanent Secretaries, Directors General, members of work groups implementing National Strategy for Development of Statistics and officials.

—– MNA
(Translated by Zaw Min)