Asean to integrate regional data

The Asean Community Statistical System (ACSS) Committee held its first meeting to discuss the integration of statistical data among Asean members toward the establishment of the region’s single market in 2015.

Suryamin, the chief secretary of Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency, said on Wednesday in Jakarta that the meeting was expected, among others, to seek ways to enable the committee to provide relevant data and improve the quality of statistical data in many basic fields necessary for the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

“We expect that we can synchronize basic data, such as trade in goods and services, foreign direct investments and millennium development goals indicators before 2015,” he said on the sidelines of the three-day meeting ending in Friday.

The ACSS committee was set up last year as a continuation of annual meetings of Asean statistical offices’ chiefs held since 1997.