BPS Participation in 2024 Pacific Statisticians’ Leadership Forum

Acting Chief Statistician of BPS, Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, along with Deputy Chief Statistician for Statistical Methodology and Information, Imam Machdi, attended the 2024 Pacific Statisticians’ Leadership Forum (PLF) hosted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in Canberra from May 20-21, 2024. The forum saw participation from chiefs of statistical offices across the Pacific region, including the representatives from Cook Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The PLF aims to support the main priorities of the Pacific Statistics Strategic Framework by focusing on the skill development of leaders and senior managers of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) to ensure their success and influence within National Statistical Systems. In his opening remarks, ABS Chief Statistician David Gruen highlighted the importance of integrating statistical and policy perspectives to produce statistics that are particularly useful for evidence-based policy making.

During the forum, Setia Pramana, Vice Director of the STIS Polytechnic of Statistics and Regional Data Hub for Asia and the Pacific Secretariat, presented on the Data Partnership–Regional Data Hub on Big Data and Data Science for Asia and the Pacific. His presentation was well received by Pacific country participants, who expressed interest in joining the Regional Hub. Additionally, Pramudya Ajeng Safitri from BPS's Directorate of Social Resilience Statistics showcased BPS's work on Disaster Statistics.

In the course of their visit, the BPS delegation also attended High-level Meetings and the APS-BPS Cross-agency Workshop, where they discussed potential future collaborations between ABS and BPS. The visit concluded with a meeting at the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, where they were welcomed by Lintang Paramitasari, Deputy Chief of Mission, and her team.