KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 — The federal government is planning to amend the Statistics Act 1965 and give the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) a larger role in helping it formulate short- and long-term policies.

According to Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, better known as Tok Pa, who is the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for economic affairs, the move is part of a restructuring process in which the government wants to streamline all data collection into one agency.

From there, another agency will be formed to analyse said data and disseminate it in detail so as to help the government formulate policies that will help the nation and lessen the people's burden.

"The existing data is not centralised. It is scattered everywhere across various agencies from federal to state as well as government-linked corporations.

"It is akin to working in individual silos,” Mustapa lamented today during his speech to launch the National and World Statistics Day celebration that was live streamed on Facebook.

"The government realises that granular data is very important as it reduces the reliance on premium data provided by independent agencies and we want to streamline all data collection into one agency.”

Mustapa said on September 9, the Cabinet had approved the formation of a National Statistics and Data Council. This council was set up to be the highest agency in the country with regards to national data and analysis.

He added that its first meeting will be chaired by the prime minister in the not-too-distant future with the aid of the relevant ministries, its ministers, agencies as well as representatives from the private sector.

Mustapa also said the government wants to give DOSM a bigger role to play when it comes to data analysis and collection and will amend the Statistics Act 1965 to give DOSM more responsibility.

"We will amend the Act and DOSM’s role will be strengthened to place them on equal standing with other world-class agencies,” said Mustapa.

"We will also establish a National Data Analysis Centre whose role will be to disseminate the data that has been collected. By doing so, we hope these agencies will have a positive impact by increasing our preparedness and making sure we take a comprehensive approach to data collection and analysis,” he added.

The theme for this year's National Statistics Day is "Connecting the World With Data We Can Trust”.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the launch ceremony was held in Putrajaya but had to be conducted virtually through Facebook.