THE 12TH SESSION OF THE ASEAN COMMUNITY STATISTICAL SYSTEM (ACSS) COMMITTEE 21ST TO 23RD NOVEMBER 2022

The Heads of the ASEAN National Statistical Offices (NSOs), as well as representatives from international organisations and development partners, attended the 12th session of the ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS12) Committee, which took place from November 21 to 23, 2022. The National Institute of Statistics (NIS) of Cambodia served as the meeting’s virtual host, while Badan Pusat Statistik (Statistics Indonesia) served as the committee’s co-chair.

The ACSS was established since 2011 and has been continuing  its efforts to provide relevant, timely and comparable ASEAN statistics in support of ASEAN  integration monitoring and evidence-based policy and decision making. The session was also  participated by the International Organisations and Development Partners. The ACSS  consistently strengthening its cooperation to enhance statistical capacities of the  ASEAN Member States (AMS) and the ASEAN Secretariat.

Malaysia was represented by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) led by the  Chief Statistician Malaysia, YBhg Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin. The ACSS members together  deliberated the committee’s key deliverables and endorsed the statistical activities and  frameworks that have been developed to strengthen the statistical cooperation among the  AMS, which are the implementation of ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2025 and Annual Work Plan  (AWP), progress in data harmonisation and other statistical development related issues. 

Among others are revisit the Code of Practice; Methodological Guide for Trade in Services;  Monitoring of AWP 2022 implementation in line with the 2022 Preliminary Progress of KPIs in  M&E of ACSS Strategic Plan; Progress on data harmonisation in key fields of statistics;  Implementation of Big Data Pilot Project in 2022; ACSS Open Data Implementation  Framework; ASEAN Statistical Dashboard; ASEAN-Help-ASEAN Framework (AHAF);  2022 ASEAN SDG Snapshot Report and others.

Malaysia appreciates ASEANStats and AMS’s efforts in implementing the AHAF courses under  each ACSS Working Group, which helped improve capacity building among the members.  Dr. Uzir thanked all AMS for their overwhelming support and encouragement in sharing their  experiences and expertise in assisting other member countries in developing statistical  capacity in accordance with the ACSS Strategic Plan 2021-2025 during the ACSS12. The AHAF  programme also encourages AMS to strengthen international cooperation to provide  high-quality national and ASEAN statistics. Malaysia strongly encourages expanding this AHAF  sharing platform and ensures that each implementation of the programme or activity achieves  the desired goal. During the ACSS12, DOSM shared Malaysia latest developments,  best practices and experiences on NSO’s Roles in National Data Governance and  Data Stewardship as Malaysia is currently adapting and evolving its data ecosystem.

On 25^th and 26^th April 2022, Malaysia as the lead country for the ACSS 2022 Big Data Project  provided technical assistance on “Price Statistics” to Lao Statistics Bureau (LSB) by sharing  exercises Octoparse software to collect prices of various products from websites that were  suggested by LSB.

DOSM would like to congratulate ASEAN Member States that have  successfully participated in the ACSS 2022 Big Data Project and will always be committed to  assisting AMS in capacity building to ensure the success of the project. Dr. Uzir said, “DOSM  will also be participating again in ACSS 2023 Big Data Pilot Project with another new project  on Poverty Estimation with Satellite Imagery and we encourage all AMS to participate again in  our next pilot project”.

Malaysia is looking forward to participating in the 13^th Session of the ASEAN Community  Statistical System (ACSS13) Committee which will be held from 22^nd to 24^th November 2023  and will be chaired by Statistics Indonesia.