The Information and Electronic Government Agency (iGA) has launched the 9th Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) Global Conference with the theme “Strengthening the Data Community”.
The event, which will be held for the first time in the Middle East, is a collaboration between iGA and a number of international organizations.
The event brought together more than 500 participants from 107 countries, including data science experts, staff from regional and international organizations, statisticians, and data users from national, regional, and international organizations, academia, and the private sector. Ta.
The opening ceremony began with a keynote speech by Rashid Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), who focused on improving monetary and financial stability while ensuring sustainable financial development. He underlined the CBB’s dedication to the development of official statistics. industry.
He stressed the importance of high-quality official statistics that can be effectively managed and published, recognizing the impact on banks’ policies and initiatives, adding that this information also empowers financial institutions and the general public. .
Mr. Al Maraj also highlighted CBB’s commitment to providing a range of transparent monthly and annual statistical publications and leveraging digital technologies to improve data accessibility and utilization in line with global best practices. He emphasized that the focus is on
He delves into the role of central banks in the decision-making process and their interaction with international institutions such as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank, noting that this helps reduce errors. did. It also increases the speed of data exchange.
The Governor highlighted the benefits of relying on data and SDMX to strengthen the data community and pointed to the need to provide uniform information that is transparent, usable, accessible, and applicable.
He said Bahraini businesses are active participants in the global data revolution, recognized the transformative potential of the SDMX initiative and are actively working on it to secure their position at the forefront of innovation and progress. He said that he is accepting.
iGA Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Ali Al Qaid said iGA is committed to transforming Bahrain into a digital society, in line with the vision of the senior leadership and the directives of Mr. Geng, Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Information and Communication Technology. He emphasized core principles and unwavering commitment. Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa.
Mr. Alkaid said the success of digital initiatives depends on the availability of accurate and useful data, optimal use of advanced technologies, and supportive digital regulations and policies, such as personal data protection laws and one-time data policies. He said there was.
He said Saudi Arabia’s comprehensive approach to e-government integrates more than 15 major systems and 10 national systems with online public services that can be accessed through multiple channels by government agencies, the private sector, and individuals. He pointed out that there was.
He highlighted the efforts of the GCC Statistics Center (GCC-Stat) to leverage statistical information to support decision-making, research and dialogue within the Gulf. He also noted that the Center was recognized by the World Bank in 2018 as one of the top 10 international organizations for open data readiness.
Dr. Fahad Al Dosari, Director-General of the General Authority for Statistics, said that there has been a significant expansion in the types of mechanisms and methodologies used in official statistics, as well as in the collection and analysis of data and the development of statistical indicators. said.
Bert Klose, IMF Statistics Director and Chief Statistician, speaking on behalf of the sponsors of the SDMX initiative, said the significant expansion of official statistical mechanisms and methodologies has made the exchange of statistical data and metadata essential for the data community. He said it became. Continued development of data collection and analysis techniques and methodologies for creating statistical indicators.
Eric Amber, Head of Smart Data at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, gave a keynote speech on the importance of SDMX as an enabling tool for statistical and descriptive data exchange and artificial intelligence.
The hackathon winners were also announced at the opening ceremony. The hackathon brought together talented developers and data experts from national, regional, and international organizations to create open-source, interactive web applications that efficiently read specification files and retrieve data from the SDMX application programming interface. (API) enables dynamic and interactive dashboards.
The conference, which runs through Thursday, will feature a series of discussions and workshops focused on SDMX. Key international organizations collaborating with iGA on this event include the United Nations, World Bank Group, IMF, OECD, BIS, European Central Bank, and International Labor Organization. The event is also supported by the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia and the Central Bank of Italy.
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