The Committee on Statistics is a subsidiary body of the Commission dedicated to the development of official statistics in the Asia-Pacific region. The Committee is convened biennially, is serviced by the Statistics Division and addresses the following issues:
- Tracking key socio-economic and environmental trends in the ESCAP region, especially progress towards the Millennium Development Goals;
- Identifying data requirements for economic, social and environmental analysis in accordance with internationally agreed standards and good practices;
- Capacity-building for national statistical offices in the ESCAP region to produce, disseminate and analyse data in accordance with internationally agreed standards and good practices.
The Committee expressed its full support for the proposed strategic direction described in a note by the Bureau, including its two overarching goals of (a) ensuring that all countries in the region by 2020 have the capability to provide an agreed basic range of population, economic, social and environment statistics, and (b) creating a more adaptive and cost-effective information management environment for national statistical offices through stronger collaboration.
The Committee also made three recommendations in its second session and brought 10 matters to the attention of the Commission.
