Paul Cheung, Director of UNSD, wrote a letter to Mr. Ma Jiantang, Commissioner of NBS of China, to express thanks for the ceremony activities that had been extremely successful by the support of NBS on the World Statistics Day. The letter is as follows:

Dear Mr. Ma,

I am writing to express my sincere appreciation for the support of China's National Bureau of Statistics on the observance of the first ever World Statistics Day. I am impressed by the range of activities that your office has organized, from the open house to the press interviews. I understand from press reports that these events have been extremely successful. 

I am particularly grateful for your collaboration in organizing a special observance ceremony at the United Nations Pavilion of the World EXPO Shanghai 2010. The ceremony went very well and it provided an excellent forum for our big family of official statisticians around the world to celebrate the many achievements of official statistics ad to acknowledge the services provided by the global statistical system at national and international level. Your staff did an excellent job in organizing this event. Their dedication and hard work are commendable. The overseas participants had provided excellent feedback on the flawless organization，warm hospitality，interesting program，and a memorable ceremony. 

On 20 Oct，2010，about 130 countries and many international agencies celebrated the World Statistics Day with various activities. The Observance ceremony in Shanghai was indeed a special occasion. Hosting this anchor event in China was reflective of the good progress achieved by China's national statistical system，as well as a great promise of future improvements，which has been made possible by the hard work，professionalism and integrity of the colleagues in NBS. 

Once again，please accept my thanks ad appreciation. Please convey to your staff of our sincere gratitude.

Paul Cheung，Director

Statistics Division/DESA