by FAYYADH JAAFAR / pic by TMR FILE

THE Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) has been appointed to lead the Working Group on the System of National Accounts, and is taking the lead in endorsing the Metadata Template for the National Accounts Indicator System.

The 11th Session of the Asean Committee on Statistical System (ACSS), which was hosted virtually by the Department of Statistics of Brunei Darussalam, has endorsed Malaysia’s appointment to the working group on Asean Statistics from 2021 to 2022.

DOSM has been providing technical assistance in the areas of Big Data and Integrated and Administrative Data under the leadership of Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (picture).

Key deliverables that were deliberated on and endorsed included the Asean-Help-Asean Framework for capacity building; pilot project of big data utilisation for enhancing ACSS official statistics; develop metadata template to implement the ACSS open data implementation framework; revising the broad framework for the sustainable development of Asean statistics, and produce a quality synthesis report along with the enhanced methodological handbook of IMTS data.

Malaysia, together with Indonesia, initiated the Big Data concept note in 2021 and ACSS11 endorsed the pilot project of big data utilisation to be implemented in 2022.

Job vacancies, tourism statistics, price statistics, the Internet economy, hybrid censuses and economic sentiment were seven out of the 18 topics chosen by the Asean member states.

The areas covered by Malaysia were Voluntary National Review, IMTS concepts and definitions (Compilers Manual 2010); IMTS Manual 2010: Link to Statistics of International Trade in Services, Balance of Payment, and System of National Account; Manufacturing Services/Goods for processing; Mirror Analysis on Foreign Direct Investment Statistics; Estimation of Realised Investment; and Big Data Regional Workshop for Data Scientists and Data Engineer in three phases.

According to a recent DOSM statement, Malaysia shared best practices and experiences in the area of big data initiatives, as well as the enhancement of integrated and administrative data compilation and dissemination.

“These efforts have resulted in the development and delivery of innovative, trusted, and timely statistics that are urgently needed in addressing the Covid-19 challenge,” it said.

The ACSS Work Programme 2021 titled “Building Resilient Statistics to Covid-19 Recovery and Beyond,” aims to address the challenges confronting Covid-19 as countries work to recover.

The ACSS is an inter-governmental organisation established in 2011 with the objective of promoting statistical cooperation among Asean member countries and dialogue partners, as well as providing relevant, timely, and comparable Asean statistics to aid in the monitoring of Asean integration and evidence-based policy and decision making.