Commissioner Ning,Vice Mayor Chen,Distinguished delegates,Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to join you today in Shanghai, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UN-China Trust Fund Project on Statistical Capacity Building. This is the first trust fund agreement on technical cooperation for statistics that has ever been signed between the Chinese Government and the United Nations.
Over the last ten years, the Project has substantively supported the efforts of the countries concerned to strengthen their national statistical capacity to better respond to the data challenges of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This is indeed an excellent example of the South-South cooperation.
In my capacity as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, I wish to warmly congratulate the achievements accomplished under the Project and the fruitful cooperation between the Chinese Government and the United Nations.
As there has been the saying in many countries, the evidence and facts are basis for making decisions. The importance of statistics in decision-making can never be overestimated. Indeed, reliable and up-to-date statistics are the foundation for effective national development policies.
In the process of achieving the 2030 Agenda, addressing economic social and environmental issues call for more availability of official statistics at the national, regional and global levels that are more comparable. This new and unprecedented demand for data has been a serious challenge for national statistical systems. Policy demand and the possibilities of the ‘data revolution’ requires making efficient use of new technologies and using big data.
I believe, in view of the past experiences, the Project will continue to provide an excellent opportunity to:? bring together partners in data,? improve the way the data ecosystem operates, and? elevate the discourse in statistics and information around the world to address our most pressing development challenges.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Chinese Government for its trust in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs for delivering this large statistical capacity-building project for another five years.
Distinguished delegates,
In addition to this renewed commitment to statistical capacity building, to work with the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs is also committed towards strengthening cooperation in the use of Big Data for official statistics in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.
I would like to recall that the National Bureau of Statistics of China and UN DESA convened the first Global Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics in October 2014, in Beijing, China. This highly successful Conference helped to advance the early work of the Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data for Official Statistics. This Global Working Group was mandated by the United Nations Statistical Commission to provide strategic vision, direction and coordination of a global programme on Big Data.
The use of Big Data and new technologies is essential for national statistical systems to innovate and remain relevant in a fast-moving data landscape. Big Data can fill data gaps, make statistical operations more cost effective, and provide granularity in data. This is all essential if we are to fulfill our promise to leave no one behind in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. To support the work on Big Data, the GWG has initiated the UN Global Platform. This will help the global statistical community to learn from each other and share knowledge on data and methods across all countries in the world.
The UN Global Platform could provide technology to undertake joint research and training in data science for testing of new data sources, methods and algorithms.
Examples of projects on this platform include:? the compilation of agricultural crop statistics using satellite data,? the measurement of migration and tourism statistics using mobile phone data, and? the calculation of Consumer Price Indices (CPIs) using global data sets of scanner data.
Many more projects can be initiated involving not only the statistical community, but also stakeholders from private sector, academia and civil society.
To scale up the work on the UN Global Platform, the Government of China and DESA have expressed their intention to establish Joint Institute on Big Data in Hangzhou, China.
As one of the global innovation hubs, this institute will provide a much-needed platform to work on Big Data for statistical and data science projects in China and other developing countries. The institute will also support international capacity-building programs in data science for official statistics and the SDGs.
I am very pleased to inform you that Mr. Ning Jizhe, the Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics of China and I will sign today the Memorandum of Intent for the establishment of the UN-NBS Institute on Big Data. With partnerships in different regions, we will gradually make the vision of the UN Global Platform – as a federated system of global and regional hubs – a reality.
Distinguished delegates,
As senior managers and data custodians who collectively represent the statistical system of the Asia and Pacific region, you will address the conceptual and institutional update of the system of economic statistics at the High-Level Seminar on the Future of Economic Statistics in the forthcoming three days.
I hope that your discussions will contribute to the formulation of priorities for the update of statistical standards and the institutional transformation of statistical operations for the Asia and Pacific region, including the use of new data and technology and capacity building in data science.
In closing, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Chinese Government for its continuous support to our capacity development efforts in the area of economic and social affairs.
I wish the High-Level Seminar a great success!
Thank you!
It is my great pleasure to join you today in Shanghai, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UN-China Trust Fund Project on Statistical Capacity Building. This is the first trust fund agreement on technical cooperation for statistics that has ever been signed between the Chinese Government and the United Nations.
Over the last ten years, the Project has substantively supported the efforts of the countries concerned to strengthen their national statistical capacity to better respond to the data challenges of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This is indeed an excellent example of the South-South cooperation.
In my capacity as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, I wish to warmly congratulate the achievements accomplished under the Project and the fruitful cooperation between the Chinese Government and the United Nations.
As there has been the saying in many countries, the evidence and facts are basis for making decisions. The importance of statistics in decision-making can never be overestimated. Indeed, reliable and up-to-date statistics are the foundation for effective national development policies.
In the process of achieving the 2030 Agenda, addressing economic social and environmental issues call for more availability of official statistics at the national, regional and global levels that are more comparable. This new and unprecedented demand for data has been a serious challenge for national statistical systems. Policy demand and the possibilities of the ‘data revolution’ requires making efficient use of new technologies and using big data.
I believe, in view of the past experiences, the Project will continue to provide an excellent opportunity to:? bring together partners in data,? improve the way the data ecosystem operates, and? elevate the discourse in statistics and information around the world to address our most pressing development challenges.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Chinese Government for its trust in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs for delivering this large statistical capacity-building project for another five years.
Distinguished delegates,
In addition to this renewed commitment to statistical capacity building, to work with the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs is also committed towards strengthening cooperation in the use of Big Data for official statistics in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.
I would like to recall that the National Bureau of Statistics of China and UN DESA convened the first Global Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics in October 2014, in Beijing, China. This highly successful Conference helped to advance the early work of the Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data for Official Statistics. This Global Working Group was mandated by the United Nations Statistical Commission to provide strategic vision, direction and coordination of a global programme on Big Data.
The use of Big Data and new technologies is essential for national statistical systems to innovate and remain relevant in a fast-moving data landscape. Big Data can fill data gaps, make statistical operations more cost effective, and provide granularity in data. This is all essential if we are to fulfill our promise to leave no one behind in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. To support the work on Big Data, the GWG has initiated the UN Global Platform. This will help the global statistical community to learn from each other and share knowledge on data and methods across all countries in the world.
The UN Global Platform could provide technology to undertake joint research and training in data science for testing of new data sources, methods and algorithms.
Examples of projects on this platform include:? the compilation of agricultural crop statistics using satellite data,? the measurement of migration and tourism statistics using mobile phone data, and? the calculation of Consumer Price Indices (CPIs) using global data sets of scanner data.
Many more projects can be initiated involving not only the statistical community, but also stakeholders from private sector, academia and civil society.
To scale up the work on the UN Global Platform, the Government of China and DESA have expressed their intention to establish Joint Institute on Big Data in Hangzhou, China.
As one of the global innovation hubs, this institute will provide a much-needed platform to work on Big Data for statistical and data science projects in China and other developing countries. The institute will also support international capacity-building programs in data science for official statistics and the SDGs.
I am very pleased to inform you that Mr. Ning Jizhe, the Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics of China and I will sign today the Memorandum of Intent for the establishment of the UN-NBS Institute on Big Data. With partnerships in different regions, we will gradually make the vision of the UN Global Platform – as a federated system of global and regional hubs – a reality.
Distinguished delegates,
As senior managers and data custodians who collectively represent the statistical system of the Asia and Pacific region, you will address the conceptual and institutional update of the system of economic statistics at the High-Level Seminar on the Future of Economic Statistics in the forthcoming three days.
I hope that your discussions will contribute to the formulation of priorities for the update of statistical standards and the institutional transformation of statistical operations for the Asia and Pacific region, including the use of new data and technology and capacity building in data science.
In closing, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the Chinese Government for its continuous support to our capacity development efforts in the area of economic and social affairs.
I wish the High-Level Seminar a great success!
Thank you!
File date:
Monday, June 3, 2019