Malaysia introduced “OpenDOSM NextGen” to the global statistical communities during the 54th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), convened in person from February 26 to March 3, 2023. At the side event “Beyond Open Data: Harnessing Openness for Use and Impact”, Malaysia shared its efforts to create a scholarly society by accessing social, economic and environmental information in one platform to encourage people to make evidence-based decisions to secure sustained economic growth, a healthy environment and inclusive social development.
Following two years of virtual meetings, the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs organised in-person session and side events that drew nearly 500 delegates from 98 countries, 37 organisations, and three non-governmental organisations to discuss the significance and standardisation of statistics for the benefit of all citizens, governments, and non-governmental organisations worldwide in advancing “Better Data, Better Lives.”
UNSC is the apex entity of the global statistical system met once a year to advance official statistical data and information. It is made up of approximately 193 UN member countries and international organisations. UNSC significantly impacts the development of national statistics systems where statistical standards, guidelines, classifications, methodologies, techniques and concepts are created, debated, and accepted for use at the national and international levels.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), represented Malaysia at the commission under the leadership of YBhg Dato’ Sri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, Chief Statistician, and in the company of Ms Ezatul Nisha Abdul Rahman, Director of Strategic Communication and International Division. A total of 32 agenda items with 43 supporting documents were discussed and finalised, resulting in crucial decisions for developing the global statistical system. Malaysia’s full engagement and contribution continued during the session, with the submission of 29 written national statements and the delivery of 7 oral statements.
Malaysia highlighted to the commission the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Big Data and Data Science, Economic Statistics, Social Statistics, National Accounts, Regional statistical development and Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, and recent DOSM initiatives to improve the statistics above. Malaysia expresses its support for establishing a new Friends of the Chair group on social and demographic statistics to work together on generating initiatives and methods to strengthen the role of social statistics for the 2030 Agenda and beyond. To balance relevance to national policymaking and promote international comparability across nations, Malaysia also commits to identifying the indicators and subjects for disaggregation applicable in all countries.
Aside from the main sessions, Malaysia discussed the most recent developments and shared its perspective as a member of expert groups at meetings of the International Comparison Program (ICP) Governing Board, Bureau Members of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics, the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC StatCom), the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science of Official Statistics Open House on Big Data and Data Science, and Multidimensional Poverty Data: Post- Pandemic.
Dr. Uzir stated that “modernising official statistics through digitalisation as well as leveraging administrative data sources is essential for the national statistical office to remain relevant in fulfilling the growing demands for high-quality, granular, and real-time data. In this regard, Malaysia, through the Department of Statistics, has exhaustively transformed the statistical operation by adopting digitalisation such as online data collection, big data analytics, and data communication through dashboards and open data platforms”.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) will conduct the Economic Census in 2023. DOSM greatly appreciates the cooperation from respondents to provide information with DOSM and make this census a success, Please visit www.dosm.gov.my for more information.
DOSM has launched OpenDOSM NextGen as a platform that provides a catalogue of data and visualisation that facilitates users in analysing various types of data. OpenDOSM NextGen is an open source data sharing medium and accessible through https://open.dosm.gov.my portal.
Please be informed that the Government of Malaysia has declared National Statistics Day (MyStats Day) on October 20 each year. MyStats Day theme is “Connecting the World with Data We Can Trust”.