The First Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical Offices of ECO Member States was held on 28-29 January, 2008 in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. The meeting was attended by the Heads of National Statistical Offices/Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran (host), Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Republic of Tajikistan and Republic of Turkey. The representatives of UNESCAP, UNECE, IDB and SESRTCIC also attended the meeting.
The meeting was inaugurated by Mr. Amir Mansour Borghei, Vice President for Planning and Strategic Supervision and Mr. Mohammad Madad, Head of the Statistical Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Heads of Delegations reviewed progress achieved so far in regional cooperation in the area of statistics as well as challenges, potentials, prospects and proposals in this regard.
The meeting considered and adopted the ECO Framework of Cooperation in Statistics and Plan of Action. The plan of action and framework envisages among the most important objectives of regional cooperation in statistics, support for ECO’s regional initiatives, planning and policy-making through the provision of comparable and timely statistics; harmonization of classifications, concepts, definitions, and measurements; adoption of international best practices; and promotion improvements in the official statistics. The progress of implementation of the Framework shall be reviewed once a year.
The Meeting discussed capacity-building activities including training programmes, utilizing technical and financial support from relevant international agencies/donors. The Secretariat informed the meeting that in cooperation with international organizations it was working on training programmes for statisticians from member states for the next few years. The meeting welcomed the proposal of Iran's delegation to organize several workshops/seminars for statisticians from member states in different fields of statistics.
The meeting noted several proposals of member states including establishment of a regional centre or a separate statistical unit in ECO Secretariat as a possible options in order to improve cooperation in the field of statistics. It was agreed that based on the proposals of member states, the Secretariat will prepare comprehensive proposal for discussion in the next meeting.
Meanwhile, a network of ECO national statistical offices (NSOs) as an institutional mechanism will be established. In this network, specific areas will be coordinated by different member states. In this regard, relevant offices will be established by respective member states for which proposals may be sent to the Secretariat by member states. The Secretariat will prepare a consolidated proposal for approval by the CPR.
The meeting adopted Tehran Communiqué of the First Meeting of ECO Heads of National Statistical Offices. The meeting decided to hold the 2nd Meeting of ECO Heads of National Statistical Offices in Astana in June 2009.
[Home] [Contact us] [Feedback] [Back]