Mr. Ma Jiantang Attended the 46th Session of the UN Statistical Commission Was Elected as the Vice-Chairman of the UN Statistical Commission for the Fourth Consecutive Time
The 46th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission was held at the UN headquarters in New York from March 3 to March 6. The China Statistical Delegation, headed by Mr. Ma Jiantang, Commissioner of the NBS of China, attended the session, and participated in the deliberation on all statistical issues. Mr. Ma was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Statistical Commission for the fourth consecutive time. During the session, Mr. Ma signed a memorandum of understanding on statistical cooperation with the Chief Statistician of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and had in-depth exchanges with persons in charge of statistical agencies of relevant countries and international organisations.
(Mr. Ma made remarks at the 46th Session of the UN Statistical Commission)
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.
Following the 43rd, 44th and 45th sessions, Mr. Ma Jiantang was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Statistical Commission for the fourth consecutive time in this session, and made decisions on international statistical issues when the Commission was not in session, together with the other members of the Executive Board of the Commission.
The contents mainly discussed in the 46th session included 13 subjects, such as statistical support for the United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda, the use of big data in statistical work, population and housing censuses, household surveys, national accounts, and the International Comparison Program, etc.
Mr. Ma made several remarks during the session, and put forward China’s standpoints on relevant subjects. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals will expire at the end of 2015, and the Post-2015 Development Agenda will be implemented since 2016. Mr. Ma pointed out that the Statistical Commission should correctly handle the relationship among consultation mechanism such as inter-governmental process, set goals for the mechanism and provide technical supports for specific targets; for the monitoring indicators of different goals, strike a proper balance between meeting the monitoring requirements and the statistical capacity in developing countries, strive to be fewer and better; organize further strength on the study of monitoring indicators, and put forward suggestions on monitoring indicators after the goals have been determined. In considering the subject of big data, Mr. Ma stressed that big data had brought revolutionary opportunities and challenges to the statistical work, with big data, the statistical agencies turned to using data from producing data, the Statistical Commission should attach great importance to the study of big data. In considering the issue of population and housing censuses, Mr. Ma pointed out that in the next round of censuses, we should be more conscious about the use of administrative records, more conscious about the use of electronic collection tools, and more conscious about the use of the Internet development results, to well complete censuses. In considering the issue of International Comparison Project, Mr. Ma affirmed the professional attitude and spirit of cooperation demonstrated in this global action, and at the same time, he pointed out the project limitations existing in theory, establishment and use, and required when carrying out the International Comparison Project, the establishment frequency and the production capacity of different countries be well balanced, when managing the project globally and regionally, the relationship between efficiency and representativeness be properly handled, and the transparency of comparison method and calculation be enhanced.
On March 4, Mr. Ma signed the memorandum of understanding on statistical cooperation between the NBS and the OECD, with Ms. Martine Durand, Director and Chief Statistician of the OECD. According to the document, the two sides will develop cooperation, exchange statistical practice and experience in statistical methods, analysis of social and economic statistics, developing statistical indicators, data release, etc.
(Mr. Ma signed the memorandum of understanding on statistical cooperation with Ms. Durand)
During the session, Mr. Ma Jiantang also communicated with persons in charge of statistical agencies, such as Statistics Netherlands, Federal Statistical Office of German, Statistics Korea, Office for National Statistics of the UK, Statistics Canada, United Nations Statistics Division, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations Industrial Development Organization and other agencies, and discussed matters related to mutual cooperation.
Other members of the China Statistical Delegation were Mr. Du Weiqun, person in of Department of International Cooperation, Mr. Liu Fujiang, Director-General of Department of Statistical Design and Management, Mr. Leslie TANG Wai-kong, Commissioner of Census and Statistics Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.