On October 19, the Statistics Conference of Countries Along the Silk Road was held in Xi’an, China. Mr. Wang Baoan, Commissioner of the NBS, attended the conference and delivered a keynote speech. On behalf of the NBS, he proposed that the countries along the Silk Road should further strengthen exchanges and cooperation on government statistics, strive to provide accurate and reliable statistical data for the sustainable development of each country. The conference was chaired by Mr. Zhang Weimin, Deputy Commissioner of the NBS.
In his speech entitled Carry Forward the Spirit of the Silk Road, Provide Strong Statistical Guarantee for Sustainable Development, Wang Baoan pointed out that mutual connection and communication on information is the foundation of economic interconnection and a win-win result, the Silk Road action will promote intergovernmental statistics cooperation and information exchanges, provide decision basis and support for pragmatic cooperation, mutual benefit and a win-win result. Statistical departments of the Chinese government will actively carry out the statistics and monitoring of related indicators of sustainable development, promote the construction of modern statistical systems; will be more positive and open, strive to provide authoritative statistical data of China's economic and social development, actively collect statistical information of relevant countries of the Silk Road, further enhance the international comparability of China’s statistics, share China’s practice of statistical reform and development with other countries; together with the government statistical agencies of countries along the Silk Road, will devote to strengthening statistical exchanges and cooperation, studying the establishment of data exchanging and sharing mechanism, participating in setting up an indicator framework of sustainable development, and actively carry out international statistical training.
At the conference, Mr. Yao Yinliang, Vice Governor of Shaanxi Province, gave a passionate speech. Messrs. Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the United Nations Statistics Division, Feng Nailin, Director-General of the Department of Population and Employment Statistics of the NBS, and Paul Cheung, Senior Advisor on Statistics to the NBS, respectively chaired discussions on main challenges facing monitoring the development of countries and regions, challenges facing monitoring and measuring social and economic development, future cooperation on measuring and monitoring social and economic development of countries along the Silk Road, etc. Relevant officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China also gave a detailed interpretation on the Silk Road, which is a significant initiative of China.
The conference was co-hosted by the NBS and the People's Government of Shaanxi Province, statistical officials, experts and scholars from the United Nations, as well as 41 countries and regions all over the world, and 11 international organizations attended the event. Participants said that the opening of the Statistics Conference of Countries Along the Silk Road marked the beginning of the World Statistics Day, and would lay a solid foundation for statistical groups of the participating countries to learn from each other, connect and communicate with each other, make common progress, and would make greater contributions to promoting economic and social development and the progress of human civilization.
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