Mr. Ma Jiantang was Elected as the Vice-Chairman of the UNSC, Mr. Xu Xianchun attended the 45th Session of the UNSC
The 45th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) was held at the UN headquarters in New York from March 4 to March 7. Following the 43rd and 44th sessions, Mr. Ma Jiantang, Commissioner of the NBS of China, was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Statistical Commission for the third consecutive time. The China Statistical Delegation, headed by Mr. Xu Xianchun, Vice-Commissioner of the NBS, participated in the session, and communicated and discussed the statistical cooperation matters with persons in charge of relevant countries and statistical agencies of international organizations.
The United Nations Statistical Commission is the highest coordinating and decision-making mechanism of the global statistical system, responsible for the formulation and publication of global statistical standards, the integration of the programs of international statistical activities and statistical work, and the promotion of statistical capacity building and the development of statistical work in different countries. The Committee is composed of 24 member countries, and China became an elected member again in 2012, with a term up to the end of 2016. The United Nations Statistical Commission annually convenes a session, and the main task is to review and summarize the key work carried out by the international statistical community since the last meeting, and to make arrangements for future statistical work plan.
During the 45th session, Mr. Ma Jiantang was elected Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Statistical Commission for the third consecutive time, composing the presidium of the Commission with the Chairman (Jil Matheson, UK National Statistician), other two Vice-Chairmen (President of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, and Director of the National Statistics Office of Dominica Republic), and the Reporter (Director General of Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics), together 5 members, and will make decisions on international statistical work when the Commission is not in session.
The contents mainly discussed in the 45th session included 14 subjects, such as the implementation of basic principles of official statistics, the improvement of the working methods of the Statistical Commission in particular to strengthen the coordinating role of the presidium, to further strengthen the statistical measurement of areas such as sustainable development and well-being, related work of the implementation of the System of National Accounts 2008, the implementation of environmental and economic accounting, the international comparison program (ICP), big data and the modernization of statistics system, to carry out commemorative activities of the World Statistics Day in 2015, etc.
Mr. Xu Xianchun made several speeches during the session. He introduced the development of China statistics, and put forward China’s standpoints on relevant subjects. The basic principles of official statistics has been passed on January 29, 2014, by the United Nations General Assembly, which made these principles rise to global political level. In the speech of Mr. Xu, he pointed out that the United Nations Statistics Division should study to further disseminate and refine these basic principles, and enhance the operability of them. In considering the topic “further strengthen the statistical measurement of areas such as sustainable development and well-being”, Mr. Xu proposed that the frameworks for a variety of development goals beyond 2015 were expected to be integrated, to form a unified measurement framework, and define the status of statistical departments of different countries in monitoring the global development agenda. Mr. Xu Xianchun introduced the progress of China in implementing the System of National Accounts 2008, required that relevant international organizations should strengthen the training of developing countries, in order to promote a smooth transition. In reviewing the topic of the ICP, Mr. Xu said that the ICP is a very complex task, and data release should be done carefully and well according to the opinions of the Global Executive Board. He voiced an approval of setting up an expert group as Friends of the Chair, to give a serious evaluation of the scientificity and applicability of the methods used in this round ICP, and to propose a convictive report.
During the session, the China Delegation made an exchange with persons in charge of National Institute of Statistics and Censuses of Argentina, Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Statistics Netherlands, the United Nations Statistics Division, World Bank, the statistical office of the European Union, the statistics Division of the ESCAP, Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific, and discussed matters related to mutual cooperation.
Before the session of the United Nations Statistical Commission, the Tenth Meeting of Global Executive Board of the ICP was held in New York, to study the release of the results of the 2011 Round ICP. Mr. Xu Xianchun attended the meeting, restated the important concerns of the Chinese side, and put forward specific requirements for the release.
Other members of the China Statistical Delegation were Mr. Du Weiqun, Director-General of Department of International Cooperation, Mr. Liu Fujiang, Director-General of Department of Statistical Design and Management, Mr. Zhao Yuncheng, Director-General of International Statistical Information Center, etc.