INTRODUCTION

The first ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS) Strategic Plan was adopted by the ASEAN Heads of Statistical Offices Meeting (AHSOM) in 2011, which has since been reconstituted as the ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS) Committee. It covered the period 2011-2015 and served as the basis to develop the Annual Work Plan (AWP) 2011 and its consecutive AWPs.

The Strategic Plan 2016-2020 was prepared by the Philippine Statistics Authority together with Brunei Darussalam Department of Statistics and ASEANstats, based on their assessment through the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the ACSS Strategic Plan 2011-2015. Major inputs were provided during the discussions of the ACSS Sub-Committee on Planning and Coordination (SCPC) in 2013 and 2014, the ASEAN-PARIS21-Eurostat Strategic Planning Workshop on 28-29 November 2012, and the High-Level Seminar on ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2020 on 17-18 June 2014, supported by PARIS21 and the ASEAN Regional Integration Support by the EU (EU-ARISE). The ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2020 was adopted by the Fourth Session of the ACSS Committee in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar on 14-16 November 2014.

During the 6th Meeting of the Committee of the Whole (CoW) for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) on 22 January 2015, the Chair of the High-Level Task Force on Economic Integration Working Group (HLTF-EI-WG) stressed the need that for the AEC pillar, all action plans would have to be for a ten-year period (2016-2025).

The draft ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2025 was discussed at the 9^th SCPC in July 2015 which proposed that the 4 main strategies shall be maintained with the inclusion of new initiatives taking into consideration global developments and regional statistical priorities. The ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2025 was adopted by the ACSS Committee during its Fifth Meeting in Cyberjaya on 3-5 November 2015.

THE PURPOSE OF THE STRATEGIC PLAN 2016-2025

The ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2025 shall provide the framework for effective facilitation, coordination, production, harmonisation, dissemination and communication of ASEAN statistics.

The strategies shall lay down priorities concerning the needs for information in support of the ASEAN Community building and integration monitoring and meeting and sustaining the capacity building needs of the ASEAN Member States, while also contributing to the statistical development at the global and regional level.

Those needs shall be weighed against the resources needed at the regional and national level to provide the required statistics and also against the response burden and associated costs.

The main purpose of the ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2025 is to strengthen the mechanisms and system established through the implementation of the preceding strategic plan, for sustainable development and flow of statistical information, better satisfaction of statistical information needs, and sustainable capacity building in the AMSs.

MAJOR THRUSTS

(1) Institutional Strengthening and Enhancement of ACSS and its Sustainability

- Recognising ACSS Committee as a prominent high‐level regional body of statistics being the highest regional policy‐making and coordinating body on ASEAN statistics;

- Developing close partnerships and dialogue between the data producing agencies, ACSS, and users in the ASEAN bodies;

- Strengthening coordination among data producing agencies;

- Realising ASEANstats as the technical arm of the ACSS Committee and regional focal point and coordinator;

- Aligning national strategy for the development of statistics with the regional strategy for the development of statistics;

- Advocating for greater support for and investment in statistics;

- Equipping the ACSS with other needed enabling mechanism, such as strategic plan, annual work plan, and effective monitoring of progress and quality.

(2) ASEAN Improvement of the Response to Greater ASEAN Data Needs

- Improving availability, timeliness, and comparability of key ASEAN integration statistics including the trade in goods, trade in services, and investment statistics, as well as SDG indicators

- Expanding the scope of regional cooperation to better respond to emerging major ASEAN initiatives, such as ASEAN integration monitoring, Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC), the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 development goals, and relevant initiatives under concerned international statistical organisations.

(3) Enhancement of Dissemination, Communication, Visibility, and Use of ASEAN Statistics

- Strengthening and consolidating ASEAN statistics databases toward an integrated ASEAN statistics database, leveraging on the development in IT and technology;

- Enhancing accessibility to ASEAN statistics and aggregated data sharing, observing data confidentiality and security;

- Facilitating and promoting wider data dissemination;

- Raising visibility of ASEAN statistics and statistical awareness;

- Ensuring statistical support for the ASEAN bodies.

(4) Bridging Gap towards Sustainable Statistical Development

- Provision of special assistance to CLMV for ensuring continuous training and transfer of knowledge and for narrowing the development gaps;

- Facilitation of ASEAN-help-ASEAN mechanism, including bilateral partnerships.

VISION AND MISSIONS

Vision:

Missions:

Values and Principles: