PUTRAJAYA, Dec 10 — Malaysia today shared its best practices and experiences on the compilation of International Merchandise Trade Statistics, Statistics of International Trade in Services, and Sustainable Development Goals at the Asean Community Statistical System (ACSS) High-Level Forum.

The forum was held back-to-back with the 10th session of the ACSS (ACSS10) committee, which was hosted virtually by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) as the chair of ACSS10 and participated by the heads of the Asean National Statistical Offices including Malaysia.

The ACSS10 session discussed key deliverables and agreed on strengthening the statistical cooperation namely the ACSS Open Data Implementation Framework, Asean-Help-Asean Framework, the outcome of the Mid-Term Review of the ACSS Strategic Plan 2016-2025 and the revised ACSS Strategic Plan, 2021-2025.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that Malaysia shared the experiences in videographic and infographic forms at the ACSS high-level forum.

It said among key takeaways from the ACSS10 was, Malaysia recorded the highest score in open data readiness among Asean member states through the assessment made by Aseanstats in 2020.

"Malaysia is once again entrusted to lead the Working Group on System of National Accounts (WGSNA), 2021-2022,” it added.

Meanwhile, DOSM said the Covid-19 pandemic had demanded it to relook its data collection approach and communication tools.

"As a new norm, DOSM leverages on digital and technology platforms as among the best initiatives in generating national official statistics to assist the government in evidence-based decision-making,” it added.

In this regard, the department conducted three special online surveys to measure the impact of Covid-19 on individuals and companies, and released seven volumes of the Malaysian Economic Statistics Review (MESR) and 223 series of various reports to reflect on the latest economic and social developments.

DOSM said it has also developed a special landing page that displays interactive visualisation of Covid-19.

"All these best practices are shared at the international platform such as webinars, forums, conferences and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) special Covid-19 websites,” it said. — Bernama