The steering committee of the Laos-Luxembourg statistical cooperation project convened a virtual review meeting on Feb 8.
Co chaired by Director of the National Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Planning and Investment Phonesaly Souksavath and Representative of Luxembourg Embassy in Vientiane Nicolas Tasch, the meeting, also attended by representatives of Luxembourg’s STATEC – the government statistics service of Luxembourg, and relevant authorities of the two countries, aimed to review the implementation of the project phase I (2017-2020) and discuss directions for phase II (2021-2026).
The implementation of the project phase I has been achieved as expected with the national statistics system improved gradually and the National Statistics Bureau having produced some statistics and indicators.
The use of statistics for research purposes is yet to be in a systematic and sustainable manner and line ministries, sectors and provinces are yet to be able to develop environmental statistics collection systems, according to Director of the National Statistics Bureau Phonesaly Souksavath. “The period between 2021 and beginning months of 2022 has been dedicated to the improvement of the organisational structure of the National Statistics system. Therefore it is necessary to improve systematically data collection, summary and integration to ensure modernized statistics production in line with the national statistics development strategy,” said Ms Phonesaly Souksavath.
The phase II of the cooperation between the Lao PDR and Luxembourg governments is a technical grant project aiming to strengthen the National Statistics Bureau, national statistics system, in particular, with respect to statistic and indicator production that meets international standards for the valuation of Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
The main objectives of the project include assist the government of Laos, the National Statistics Bureau in particular, in producing and disseminating official statistics that are of quality and meet international standards with a focus placed on the implementation and development of environmental statics system; capacity building on data processing and analysis; dissemination of social, income and poverty statistics; revising human resource development strategy; improving collaboration mechanisms; development of economic statistics and business license statistics, promotion of capacity building on economic forecasting, and devising action plan on skills and knowledge exchange on statistical affairs.
Source: Lao News Agency