CO-CHAIR SUMMARY
1. The First Meeting of AMEICC Working Group on Statistics (WGS) was held on 23-24 July 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Meeting was attended by representatives from Japan and nine of the ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam) and Japan.
2. The Meeting was opened by Dato’ Shaari Bin Haji Abdul Rahman, Chief Statistician of Malaysia, extending his warmest welcome to all participants. He highly appreciated the establishment of WGS and expressed his hope to further develop and harmonize the industrial and commercial statistics among the ASEAN countries through the activities of WGS in order to contribute to industrial policy making.
3. Dr. Rabieyah Mat, Deputy Chief Statistician, Department of Statistics, Malaysia and Mr. Sumio Nagai, Director for International Relations, Research and Statistics Department, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan co-chaired the Meeting.
(a) Overall activities of AMEICC
4. AMEICC Secretariat (JODC) briefed the Meeting on the structure of AMEICC framework, background of WGS establishment and future schedules of coming SEOM+METI Consultation in August 2002 and AEM-METI Ministerial Consultation in September 2002, to which outcomes of this meeting will be reported.
(b) Adoption of Terms of Reference
5. AMEICC Secretariat (JODC) briefed the Meeting on the draft Terms of Reference which incorporated the comments from ASEAN countries since the Preliminary Meeting of WGS held on 13 March 2002 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
(c) Adoption of Work Programme of AMEICC WGS
6. AMEICC Secretariat (JODC) briefed the Meeting on the draft Work Programme of WGS. In line with this, ASEAN Secretariat briefed the Meeting on the Appendix I of the Work Programme including the details of “ASEAN Industry and Commerce Statistics Info Bank (hereinafter called ‘Info Bank’)”, which is a measure to facilitate and support the information sharing among the member countries of WGS. The Meeting agreed to update the ASEAN Secretariat with the latest information with the understanding to keep the information submitted to the Info Bank classified and shared only among the member countries if the information provided by the member countries is confidential. As for the Work Programme Appendix I, particularly in the column “Time Frame”, the Meeting noted that it can be amended when the needs arise, subject to the agreement of the member countries. The Meeting welcomed the establishment of the Info Bank which can contribute to the facilitation of information sharing among the member countries with small budget. The Meeting noted that ASEAN Secretariat will be responsible for establishment and maintenance of the Info Bank.
7. In relation to the item “Training to ASEAN National Statistical Offices” mentioned in the draft Work Programme, Japan briefed the Meeting on its past and ongoing cooperation activities to ASEAN countries in the field of statistics, including the Seminar on Industrial Statistics for ASEAN countries which will be held in October to November 2002 in Tokyo, Japan. The Meeting appreciated Japan’s cooperation activities and expressed its hope for Japan to continuously implement the Seminar in year 2003.
8. The Meeting agreed to continuously discuss the current situation of industrial and commercial statistics and review the differences of situations among member countries to identify measures and approaches to improve industrial and commercial statistics in ASEAN by year 2004.
9. The Meeting adopted the Work Programme of AMEICC WGS.
10. Japan accepted the proposal made by ASEAN Secretariat to brief the Meeting on overall situation of industrial statistics in ASEAN countries in the 2nd meeting of WGS, based on the country reports of industrial and commercial statistics presented by respective member countries in this meeting.
(d) Exchange views on industrial statistics in member countries
11. ASEAN countries briefed the Meeting on its current situation of industrial and commercial statistics respectively. The Meeting acknowledged the existence of various issues and problems for the development of harmonized industrial and commercial statistics among ASEAN countries and agreed to further exchange the details and discuss how to deal with issues and problems in the next meeting.
12. Japan briefed the Meeting on census system of industries in Japan. The Meeting appreciated Japan’s cooperation to share its best practice of census system among the member countries.
(e) Issues to be discussed in the 2nd meeting of WGS
13. With regard to the agenda for the 2nd meeting of WGS, Japan proposed to discuss the collaboration between national statistics offices and main users of the industrial and commercial statistics such as industrial sector and policy makers. The Meeting adopted Japan’s proposal and ASEAN countries agreed to brief on the current situation of collaboration among the related agencies and entities of the statistics in respective countries in the 2nd meeting of WGS.
14. In order to seek for possible cooperation between the international organizations and WGS, the Meeting agreed to invite international organizations to make a presentation on their activities related to WGS in the next meeting. Pursuant to this suggestion, ASEAN secretariat will contact the relevant international organizations.
15. The Meeting noted that Malaysia highlighted the importance to develop the efficient directory system for statistical data collection in ASEAN countries. The arrangement for this matter will be further discussed through e-mail communication.
(f) Date and venue of the next Meeting
16. The Meeting agreed that the 2nd Meeting of WGS would be convened in March 2003 in the Philippines.
17. The Meeting expressed its appreciation to the Government of Malaysia for its hospitality and excellent arrangements made for the Meeting.
