SESRIC participated in the 44th Meeting of the Permanent Technical Committee for Statistics of the League of Arab States (LAS), organised by the Department of Statistics and Databases of the LAS General Secretariat and hosted by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on 28 September 2026.
The Committee brings together the heads and representatives of the statistical agencies of Arab countries to follow up on regional statistical cooperation and agree on common priorities. The agenda of the 44th Meeting covered the following items:
-
Follow-up of the implementation of the recommendations of the 43rd Meeting and the activities of the LAS Department of Statistics and Databases since the 43rd Meeting
-
Statistical activities of Arab statistical agencies and cooperation among them in 2026, and the reports and recommendations of the sub-committees
-
Presentations requested by statistical agencies on the AI-powered classification platform of GASTAT, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the expenditure and income survey and the implementation of the digital economy survey in the Sultanate of Oman, and migration statistics in the Kingdom of Morocco
-
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators, including the environment indicators related to the SDGs
-
Recent developments in the field of census and the use of modern technology in statistical work
-
The working group on developing a unified strategic model for the advancement of statistical work, the work programme of the Department of Statistics and Databases for 2027, and the statistical activities and annual work programmes of specialised Arab organisations
-
The modern Arab regional strategy for the development of statistical systems and sustainable development, and the regional project to assist Arab countries in transitioning to the 2025 System of National Accounts (SNA)
During the Meeting, SESRIC briefed the participants on its cooperation with the LAS and the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) of Arab countries, noting that the technical priorities of the Committee are closely aligned with its own and that its plan of activities for 2027 will be tailored to the needs of OIC Member Countries. Building on the experiences shared by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman, SESRIC expressed its readiness to co-host regional workshops on the integration of AI into survey methodologies and classification platforms, as well as its full support for the regional initiative to assist OIC countries in transitioning to the 2025 SNA, which will be covered under its Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) Programme. SESRIC also invited the participants to the 15th Session of the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-StatCom), held in Jeddah on 29–30 September 2026, and to the follow-up meetings of the OIC-StatCom held on the margins of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), and reaffirmed its readiness to translate the recommendations of the Committee into practical joint activities for 2027 and beyond.
The LAS, headquartered in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt, is a regional organisation of 22 Arab countries. Its Department of Statistics and Databases, within the Economic Sector of the General Secretariat, coordinates the work of the Permanent Technical Committee for Statistics.
For more information, please visit: http://www.lasportal.org
|
