The ASEAN Heads of statistical offices and members of the ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS) Committee at the ninth session of the ACSS9 which was held on October 9 to 11 last year in Bangkok, Thailand. — Photo aseanstats.org

HÀ NỘI — The tenth session ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS) will be held on December 8 to 9 by the Việt Nam General Statistics Office (GSO) and ASEAN Secretariat.

On the first day of the meeting, delegates are due to touch on finalising concept notes on the potential use of big data to enhance official ACSS statistics. Evaluations of the mid-term ACSS strategic plan for 2016-2025 and adjusted plan for 2021-2025 as well as a review of work in 2020 will also be on the agenda.

The plenary session on December 9 is to discuss measures to bolster ACSS institutions and sustainability, popularity and the frequent use of ASEAN statistics and measures to meet the growing ASEAN demand for data.

The ACSS Committee is the highest regional policy-making and coordinating body on ASEAN statistics. Its mandate is to improve statistical capacity, enhance comparability of statistics, build human resources and co-ordinate regional data collection.

The year 2020 marks an important milestone in the process of integration and development of ACSS - the 10th anniversary of ACSS and the role of Việt Nam in the community has been enhanced.

With Việt Nam chairman of ASEAN in 2020, the GSO has proposed an initiative on establishing a statistical information system for the sustainable development of ASEAN and received consensus from member states.

The initiative aimed to help establish a sustainable, uniform and consistent statistical information system and ensure the provision of adequate information on tracking ASEAN member states’ progress towards the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The outbreak and complex development of COVID-19 this year has affected social, economic, security and health sectors of countries all over the world.

Governments of many ASEAN member countries have adopted social distancing and remote work in response to the pandemic.

Given that context, the GSO in collaboration with the ASEANStats under ASEAN Integration Monitoring Department has overcome difficulties and co-ordinated ASEAN statistics work in the direction of enhancing interaction through the network environment and organising online sessions. — VNS