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QSA was represented in the meeting by the Director of IT Department,
Mr. Mansour Al Malki and Dr. Ahmad Hussein, the statistics advisor
at QSA.
The meeting came as quick response to recommendations issued by the
Council of Undersecretaries and Heads of Statistics Agencies in the
member states during its recent meeting held in Muscat, Oman, in may
2009. The recommendations were later approved by the GCC Ministerial
Committee for Planning and Development in its 19th meeting held
Muscat in June 2009, which commissioned a workgroup to formulate a
common statistics strategy for the GCC countries based on a
framework developed by Qatar and Oman and papers presented in the
4th meeting of Directors of Economic Statistics.
The concerned international agencies will examine the statistics
papers and provide feedback and a workshop will later be held in
Oman to review the GCC common statistics strategy. The workgroup
will develop themes for the workshop which will be attended by
senior experts from Paris Commission 21, European Statistics Center
and UN Statistics Division.
Following profound discussions, based on the strategy draft and
papers prepared by Qatar and Oman, the agenda was finally approved
by the hosting country (Oman) and the GCC Secretariat General.
After examining the member states' views, the workgroup commissioned
to prepare a general framework for the GCC common strategy,
concluded that there is a vital need for developing a common
statistics strategy for the region, which includes a unified
framework encompasses the strategy's vision and mission as well as
major objectives, sub-goals and mechanisms for implementation,
monitoring and evaluation. The workgroup has recommended that the
strategy shall have five- year span, due to the changing social and
economic situation in the region.
As for the importance of identifying the current status of
statistics systems in the region as first step for strategy
formulation, the workgroup recommended that Qatar, Oman and Kuwait
shall prepare a questionnaire that includes specific questions so
that it could provide an indication on the statistics general
status. The questionnaire is recommended to be disseminated to the
member states before the end of July this year.
The workgroup also recommended that each of the member states shall
examine the current situation of their statistics, define the
strategy's major objectives and sub-goals, based on the papers
presented in the meeting and identify detailed activities to be
carried out by each state. Statistical agencies in the Kingdom of
Bahrain, Oman and Qatar were assigned to analyze the questionnaire
results for each state and prepare draft on the strategy's major
objectives and sub-goals.
The workgroup has also recommended that the GCC Secretariat General
shall identify the strategy's major objectives and sub-goals and
detailed activities that could enhance the GCC work and the support
the decision making process with respect to economic and social
integration.
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