The lecture was attended by Butti Ahmed Mohammed Bin Butti Al Qubaisi, Director General of Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi, Rashid Al Suwaidi, Director General of the National Bureau of Statistics and a number of the members of SCAD's Advisory Committee and senior officials, besides representatives from various local departments and government bodies and a crowd of researchers and statisticians.
SCAD welcomed the lecturer, pointing out that he is one of the most prominent statistical experts in Singapore, and serves as Director of the United Nations Statistics Division. Prof. Cheung organized the first-ever World Day of Statistics, on 20/10/2010, with the active participation of more than 140 countries and 40 organizations worldwide. This occasion will be observed annually.
The Economic Crisis At the outset Prof. Cheung praised the tremendous development in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the emirate's success in overcoming the global financial crisis. In fact Prof. Cheung used this approach to shed light on some global issues and the way they are affected by statistics, focusing on the economic crisis and pointing out that developed countries are not equally successful in navigating their way through the crisis, while some developing nations have shown stronger indicators of success in overcoming the crisis.
Looming crises According to Professor Cheung, there are some new crises looming on the economic horizon, such as a "currency war" and the protectionist policy pursued by some states, triggering serious problems at the international level. The lecturer also touched on the strategic issue of food security, which is one of the most important problems facing humanity, adding that climate change is another potential source of international crises.
Development in the Middle East Prof. Paul Chung was especially interested in throwing light on development issues in the Middle East. He remarked that the Middle East is one of the areas least affected by the global financial crisis compared to other regions of the world, citing the region's limited ties to global markets, which keeps it at bay from a host of economic risks.
Prof. Cheung explained that there are many challenges confronting world countries in the implementation of their development policies, such as drawing appropriate plans to secure national interests in the face of globalization, as the success of every country in the managing globalization and addressing the intense competition is a major determinant for the future of that country. In this regard countries need to work on increasing efficiency and encourage innovation and creativity.
World's top financial centres In a ranking of the world financial centres, United Nations official, Prof. Paul Cheung showed that London was in the forefront, followed by New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.
Prof. Cheung also shed the spotlight on the key drivers of sustainable development in a turbulent world, emphasizing the need for responsive, unified and smart governments and calling for re-examination of the government role, with government intervention being seen as necessary as in risk and crisis management. He also stressed the need to enhance the resilience of the domestic economy, nurture new economic engines and build strong institutions and infrastructures.
According to Prof. Cheung, this requires building an effective national information and official statistics system as key strategic driver of competitiveness. It is also important to ensure that data are aggregated and analyzed for quick decision support, which in turn requires the "one government" paradigm.
The role of official statistics Prof. Cheung stressed to the role of official statistics as the source of strategic information for decision-making and an aid in rapid assessment of sectoral performance, forecasting and early warning, monitoring of risks and vulnerabilities, including the risks and contingencies associated with computers.
The credibility of statistics bureaus Prof. Cheung for professional further added that credibility of centres require the availability of certain basic criteria, such as independence, trustworthiness, accountability and transparency and statistical soundness and accessibility, stressing the need for an institutional framework for the collection and dissemination of data, in addition to the coordination of statistical activities in the country to minimize duplication in the collection of statistics.
Modern techniques Professor Cheung discussed some of the latest methods of collecting statistical data, which include Internet based surveys and database updating and data capture imaging techniques. He emphasized the role of information technology in bringing about the aspired development in data collection and analysis through a high level system for the management, storage and integration of information with maps and geographic platforms.
Prof. Cheung reviewed the key and latest approaches in the areas of economic and social statistics as applied to the world population census programme in 2010, as well as to the consumer price index and household surveys.
Measure of welfare Prof. Cheung pointed out that the GDP is not a sufficient indicator of as a measure of economic well-being, adding that the United Nations looks prefers to look at the indicators of income and consumption rather than production in measuring the levels of well-being. The lecturer also drew attention to the need to distinguish between the current assessment of well-being and the assessment of its sustainability.
Prof. Cheung concluded the lecture with a discussion of environmental statistics and the most important global environmental issues such as the strong impacts of climate change, with a focus on the challenges facing statistical work in the first half of the 21st century, the daunting efforts needed to cope with rapid developments of the modern era and the need to act proactively, taking advantage of electronic analysis and classification capabilities.
Finally, the lecturer answered questions from the audience and praised the efforts and achievements of Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi in the service of all sectors of development in the emirate, adding that the centre has made substantial achievements recently. According to Prof. Cheung SCAD plan is ambitious and achievable if the Centre progresses at the same pace.
Cooperation with the United Nations In conclusion Butti Ahmed Mohammed Bin Butti Al Qubaisi, Director General of Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi, thanked Prof. Paul Cheung for the valuable lecture, re-iterating the Centre desire for continued cooperation with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), praising the UNSD's role of the Division in supporting the development of the global statistical system, setting of international statistical standards, dissemination of statistical data and provision of technical advice to member countries on the development of national statistical systems, plus a range of other important activities.
Al Qubaisi also indicated that SCAD will continue to organize similar lectures in the context of the Centre's initiative for the promotion statistical awareness.
He remarked that the lecture highlighted the importance of official statistics as a source of government data, emphasizing their role in nurturing the culture of excellence among individuals and organizations alike, by highlighting the challenges that hinder development. including the need to maintain a high degree of appropriateness of policies to the actual needs in the area of official statistics, and the introduction of new methods of data collection method and the official statistics, using advanced techniques to improve the quality and efficiency of statistical production and dissemination, with the importance of analyzing the data.
Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi had begun a series of lectures last February with a lecture on "official statistics", by Professor Brian Pink Chief Statistician of the government of Australia and Director of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, who presented the lecture during an official visit to Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi.
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