The Ninth Session of the ASEAN Community Statistical System Committee (ACSS9), hosted by Thailand National Statistical Office (TNSO), was held on 9 to 11 October 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand.  The Session was chaired by Ms. Hataichanok Chinauparwat, Inspector of the TNSO, with Mr. Pham Quang Vinh, Deputy Director General of Viet Nam General Statistics Office (GSO) as the Co-chairperson.

Aligned with the overall theme of Thailand’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2019 of “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability”, and as part of ACSS’s continuous commitment to further enhance regional statistical cooperation and respond proactively to emerging statistical requirements, the ACSS Committee implemented the work program 2019 and gain remarkable achievements.

Key deliverables of the ACSS working plan 2019 were as follows: In meeting increasing data requirements for monitoring ASEAN integration, the ACSS Committee continued its statistical programs aimed at providing timely and comparable statistics on international merchandise trade, foreign direct investment, international trade in services, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), National Accounts and other macroeconomic and social indicators. The Key Performance Indicators of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System of the ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2025 were further clarified. The ACSS gained the 2019 preliminary results from the M&E monitoring in building robust statistical systems as compared to the 2018 baseline. The implementation framework for the ACSS Open Data Initiative for Statistics was endorsed. In recognition of the potential use of Big Data in official statistics as new sources of data, the ACSS Committee has supported the on-going development of a concept paper on the potential use of Big Data for further enhancement of ACSS official statistics. Also in 2019, Department of Statistics Malaysia successfully held the 62nd International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress 2019 (ISI WSC) in Kuala Lumpur, 18 to 23 August 2019.

At the national level, the ASEAN Member States (AMSs), with their initiatives, made great efforts in meeting increasing data needs and enhancing data quality at the national level. The administrative data sources and Big Data are increasingly used in the production of official statistics by AMSs.

At the end of the Meeting, the ACSS Committee expressed its sincere gratitude to the Government of Thailand, through Thailand National Statistical Office, for its excellent chairmanship, warm hospitality and impeccable arrangements for the Ninth Session of the ACSS Committee, at the same time, welcomed the ACSS Chairmanship of Viet Nam General Statistical Office in 2020.