Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) chief statistician, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin stated that 'modernising official statistics through digitalisation as well as leveraging administrative data sources is essential for the national statistical office to remain relevant in fulfilling the growing demands for high-quality, granular, and real-time data'.
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia introduced "OpenDOSM NextGen" to the global statistical communities during the recent 54th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC).
In the related event "Beyond Open Data: Harnessing Openness for Use and Impact", Malaysia shared its efforts to create a scholarly society by accessing social, economic and environmental information in one platform to encourage people to make evidence-based decisions to secure sustained economic growth, a healthy environment and inclusive social development.
Following two years of virtual meetings, the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs organised in-person session and related events that drew nearly 500 delegates from 98 countries, 37 organisations, and three non-governmental organisations to discuss the significance and standardisation of statistics for the benefit of all citizens, governments, and non governmental organisations worldwide in advancing "Better Data, Better Lives."
UNSC is the apex entity of the global statistical system met once a year to advance official statistical data and information. It is made up of approximately 193 UN member countries and international organisations.
UNSC significantly impacts the development of national statistics systems where statistical standards, guidelines, classifications, methodologies, techniques and concepts are created, debated, and accepted for use at the national and international levels.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), represented Malaysia at the commission under the leadership of Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, chief statistician, and in the presence of Ezatul Nisha Abdul Rahman, director of Strategic Communication and International Division.
A total of 32 agenda items with 43 supporting documents were discussed and finalised, resulting in crucial decisions for developing the global statistical system.
Malaysia's full engagement and contribution continued during the session, with the submission of 29 written national statements and the delivery of 7 oral statements.
Malaysia highlighted to the commission the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Big Data and Data Science, Economic Statistics, Social
Statistics, National Accounts, Regional statistical development and Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, and recent DOSM initiatives to improve the statistics. Malaysia expresses its support for establishing a new Friends of the Chair group on social and demographic statistics to work together on generating initiatives and methods to strengthen the role of social statistics for the 2030 Agenda and beyond.
To balance relevance to national policymaking and promote international comparability across nations, Malaysia also commits to identifying the indicators and subjects for disaggregation applicable in all countries.
Additionally, Malaysia discussed the most recent developments and shared its perspective as a member of expert groups at meetings of the International Comparison Program (ICP) Governing Board, Bureau Members of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics, the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC StatCom), the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science of Official Statistics Open House on Big Data and Data Science, and Multidimensional Poverty Data: Post- Pandemic.
Mohd Uzir stated that “modernising official statistics through digitalisation as well as leveraging administrative data sources is essential for the national statistical office to remain relevant in fulfilling the growing demands for high-quality, granular, and real-time data.
“In this regard, Malaysia, through DOSM, has exhaustively transformed the statistical operation by adopting digitalisation such as online data collection, big data analytics, and data communication through dashboards and open data platforms”.
DOSM has launched OpenDOSM NextGen as a platform that provides a catalogue of data and visualisation that facilitates users in analysing various types of data.
OpenDOSM NextGen is an open source data sharing medium and accessible through https://open.dosm.gov.my portal.
The Government has also declared Oct 20 as the National Statistics Day (MyStats Day) for each year. MyStats Day theme is “Connecting the World with Data We Can Trust”.
