The Islamic Countries Society of Statistical Sciences (ISOSS) organized, under the sponsorship of SESRIC, the 13th Islamic Countries Conference on Statistical Sciences (ICCS-13) in Bogor, Indonesia on 18 - 21 December 2014. Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, made a welcome speech on 18 December 2014 where he focused on the linkages between National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and academia including higher education institutes and research centres. Citing findings concerning the unstructured relationship between two entities, Prof. Alpay emphasized the need for institutionalising the linkages between NSOs and academia to result in a mutually beneficial outcome based on collaborative work that drives innovation, and high quality data and research output.

On 19 December 2014, Prof. Alpay delivered a Keynote Speech on the theme “Statistical Capacity Development of the OIC Member Countries between 2009-2013 and Emerging Concepts in Official Statistics” that was well received by the participants. In his speech, Prof. Alpay mentioned that statistical capacity development had strengthened its place in the agendas of decision-makers with the introduction of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and has been still maintained as an inseparable item during the course of the MGDs' successor; i.e., the Sustainable Development Goals whose measurement is to be based on a “data revolution” incorporating new emerging concepts in official statistics. Prof. Alpay further informed the audience about the Statistical Capacity Indicator (SCI) – an approach developed by the World Bank to quantify the statistical capacities of developing countries based on three sub-dimensions. He summarized the situation of OIC Member Countries with regards to their SCI scores between 2009 and 2013 and also touched upon the emerging concepts of “big data”, “open data” and “data revolution” in consideration with their possible interaction with official statistics.

Convened in Indonesia previously in 1996 for the ICCS-5, the main objective of the ICCS-13 was to bring together research workers and practitioners in statistical sciences from all over the world and Islamic Countries and highlight the contributions of Muslim scholars to the development of statistical sciences. The Conference also focused on the strengthening of a central information system by establishing data banks and centres of information and encouraging statistically developed countries to technically support Islamic Countries in developing and transferring of statistical technology. The Conference further contributed in the promotion of the application of statistical sciences in fields such as computer and information technology, robotics and artificial intelligence. The establishment of training centres to promote statistical education and coordinate and unify courses in statistics at all levels of education in Islamic Countries also has been discussed.

Statement

• Keynote Speech of Prof. Savas Alpay, Director General, SESRIC (English)

Documents:

• Report of The 13th Islamic Countries Conference on Statistical Sciences (English)
• Proceedings of ICCS-13 (English)

Photos