Abu Dhabi, Sep 22th, 2012 (WAM)--Statistics Centre ? Abu Dhabi (SCAD) has recently organised a lecture entitled "Modern Trends in Official Statistics" presented by Dr. Mohamed Taamouti, Director of Statistics at the High Commission for Planning in Morocco.

The event was held at the Sheikh Khalifa Hall at the National Centre for Documentation and Research, and attended by Butti Ahmed Mohammed Bin Butti Al Qubaisi, Director of Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi, and the centre?s Higher Management and staff. The lecture was organised as part of a series of specialised lectures that SCAD organises in support of its key strategic initiative to "Promote Statistical Awareness".

In his lecture on "Modern Trends in Official Statistics", Dr. Taamouti indicated that statistics is witnessing a new phase that requires its development and asserted the need for official statistics to reflect those changes and respond to them if it were to retain its relevance and value. He explained the key driving factors that led to the basic changes in the concept of official statistics in relevant domains.

The lecture provided a description of the new trends in the field of official statistics, which was presented as a vital concept that develops over time in response to various changes and requirements. Moreover, Taamouti stressed the need to adopt a high policy based upon the relevance of statistics, and to introduce newly developed ICT innovations to the methods used for data collection in order to improve both the quality and the efficiency of how statistics are produced and disseminated, and to increase the value of statistics through developing the processes of data analysis and processing.

In the beginning, Taamouti explained the statistical production process and the changes, it is witnessing, and their key driving factors, indicating that official statistics are produced to meet the needs of users, for policy making, policy monitoring and evaluation and research purposes, and that they need to produce timely, accurate, reliable and relevant information. During recent years, he concluded, many important changes have affected what is produced, i.e. the statistical product, and the way it is produced.

The key driving factors of the change in the mechanism of official statistics production, according to Taamouti, are driven by economic and social transformation as well as technological and methodological innovations.

Some of those factors were the recent economic and financial crises that resulted in the increasing need for more information on produced stocks (real estate market), financial assets, liabilities, etc., to allow for a more accurate assessment of economic situation and the necessity to produce timely economic indicators and improve economic and financial forecasting (Rapid Estimates of Economic Trends seminars).

Another factor is the food crises and market volatility which raised the question of the availability of agricultural statistics that allows for a reliable assessment of the situation (in terms of stocks, forecasting crops, etc.). This, for example, has led to the initiative of the UNSC to establish a FOC (Forecasting of Crisis) group on agricultural statistics, followed by the joint partnership by UN-FAO-WB on a "Global Strategy to improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics".

A third factor, Taamouti maintained, is the increasing awareness of the environmental deterioration that lead to the need to develop environmental statistics that has put pressure for the calculation of gas emissions and stressed the need for coherence in definitions and standards, and recently the adoption of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) and more strict sustainability measures.

The shifting economic structures also lead to updating many statistical classifications (ISIC4 raising separately two new sectors "water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities" and "information and communication").

The presenter showed how the use of computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI), optical character recognition (OCR), mobile phones, GPS, internet surveys, etc. increases the reliability of data and reduces the delays in production process.

During the dissemination phase of statistical production, the use of GIS, videos, new visualisation techniques has led progressively to the integration of statistical information and geospatial information.

The increasing international links and the need for cross country comparisons has enhanced coordination of statistical activities (such as the International Comparison Program (ICP) in which only 146 countries participated in 2005 but this number rose to 186 countries in the 2011 round).

Also, the need to better understand economic and social dynamics and the insufficiency of cross section surveys led to the development of longitudinal surveys designed to capture more comprehensively the dynamics of social and economic change (such as poverty dynamics and labor market dynamics).

Taamouti drew attention to the need to reduce the burden on survey respondents through the use of administrative records, methodological innovations to provide robust estimates despite high non-response rates and better organisation of statistical surveys.

In addition to all other ICT innovation factors that initiated change in official statistics, the development of registers for reasons other than statistical production allowed for more reliance on these new sources which, at the same time, helped reduce the burden on statistical units and proved cost-effort- and time saving.

The presenter gave an overview of the Moroccan statistical system, stating that the Law regularising Statistics in Morocco was issued in 1968. Taamouti described the Moroccan statistical system as a highly decentralized system that comprises many statistical producers. The core of the system is the Statistics Directorate, which acts under the authority of the High Commission for Planning. The Statistics Directorate undertakes main surveys, census and has a coordination role of the system as well.

In response to the driving factors of changes, Taamouti referred to many statistical projects the Morocco has undertaken such as "The Well-being Survey" that was conducted in 2012 covering a sample of 5000 households. This survey aimed at the identification of the dimensions that matter to the population, self-evaluation of personal well-being and happiness, the assessment of which dimensions went well and which went wrong, in addition to collecting data on relevant policy information.

He concluded the lecture by emphasising the challenges facing statistical work in the first half of the 21st century, maintaining that coping with the rapid and successive changes witnessed in modern times, on all levels, require a huge statistical effort as well as the development of new mechanisms that allow nations not only to cope with change but to predict it through the use of electronic analysis and classification methods.

The presenter answered the questions posed by the attendees, commending Statistics Centre ? Abu Dhabi for its notable achievements in the service of all sectors of development. He also pointed that the centre has recently been able to achieve qualitative milestones, stressing the high ambitions of SCAD?s strategy and business plan, and asserting his belief in SCAD?s ability to carry out its plans as long as it continues to proceed at its current progress rate.

In conclusion, Butti Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Qubaisi, Director of Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi thanked the presenter and audience, stressing SCAD?s aspiration to establish continued cooperation with leading statisticians worldwide. He also stressed SCAD?s keen interest in continuing to present such important lectures in support of its plan to "promote of statistical awareness".

The Statistics Center - Abu Dhabi launched this lecture series with a lecture presented by Professor Brian Pink, Chief Government Statistician in Australia and Director of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, who was on an official visit to SCAD, followed by a lecture by Professor Paul Cheung, Director of the Statistics Division of the United Nations.

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2012.