14th Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical Offices of BRICS Countries was held in Beijing
On October 11 in Beijing, the 14th Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical Offices of BRICS Countries was held via video link. Kang Yi, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China, Eduardo Rios Neto, director of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Sergey Galkin, director of the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, Arun Kumar Biswas, director General of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of India, and Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General and director of Statistics South Africa all attended the meeting and delivered the speeches. Stefan Schweinfest, director of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), and Fu Haishan, director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group also attended the meeting to make statements. During the meeting, the 14th BRICS Summit Beijing Declaration was fully implemented, and continuous efforts to strengthen the statistical cooperation of BRICS countries were emphasized. Moreover, the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication (JSP) 2022 compiled by the NBS of China and statistical agencies of BRICS countries was released, reflecting the economic and social development of BRICS countries and serving as important references for cooperation and exchanges among BRICS member states.
According to Kang Yi, statistical cooperation is an important part of the BRICS cooperation mechanism. Over the past years, statistical agencies of BRICS countries have held regular heads meetings to discuss how to implement major statistical tasks stipulated in BRICS Joint Statistical Publication (JSP) and address new issues and challenges coming from the development of statistics. Continuous efforts have been made in accelerating statistical cooperation and exchange, and tangible results have been achieved in promoting the all-around and multi-level BRICS cooperation as well as the economic and social development of BRICS countries.
As pointed out by Kang, the meeting themed “Application of Big Data in Official Statistics” showed how the spirit of the 14th BRICS Summit was implemented fully and official statistics have developed with the reform of modern information technology. Recently, by fully carrying out the National Big Data Strategy and innovatively applying big data in official statistics, the NBS of China has realized remarkable progress. Kang also noted that the NBS of China will work with statistical agencies of BRICS countries to further deepen the exchange and cooperation of the application of big data in statistics so as to promote the development of statistics in BRICS countries and serve the economic and social development of BRICS countries better.
Representatives from statistical agencies of BRICS, UNSD and the World Bank’s Development Data Group fully affirmed the achievements made in the statistical cooperation of BRICS countries over the past year and expressed their appreciation for China’s contribution during the presidency of the BRICS grouping. They expressed their support to continuously work together to deepen the statistical cooperation and deliver more practical results. Participants shared their experience and exchanged opinions on the theme “Application of Big Data in Official Statistics”. The representative from the Statistics South Africa introduced relevant plans for the 15th Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical Offices of BRICS Countries.
The meeting was hosted by Mao Shengyong, deputy director of the NBS of China. Members of the Department of International Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China attended the meeting. Responsible members from department-level units of the NBS of China participated in the meeting.