Malaysia Reassumes Leadership Of ASEAN Community Statistical System For 2025

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has officially reassumed the chairmanship of the ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS) for 2025 after a decade, following its previous leadership in 2015, marking a significant step in strengthening regional statistical collaboration.

The announcement was made during the 14th ACSS committee session (ACSS14) in Vientiane, Laos, from Nov 26–28, 2024, chaired by Laos chief statistician Phonesaly Souksavath and co-chaired by chief statistician of Malaysia Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) said in a statement today that as ACSS chair for 2025, Malaysia will lead efforts to strengthen ASEAN's statistical capacity, support data-driven decisions and promote sustainable and inclusive regional integration.

It said DoSM demonstrated its strong commitment in regional statistical collaboration by co-leading ASEANstats in key initiatives, which encompassed the ACSS Action Plan 2026-2030 and its associated key performance indicators, the Handbook for Mirror Analysis on Merchandise Trade Statistics and the ASEAN Annual Priority List for 2025.

“The primary objectives of these initiatives are to enhance the strategic direction of ASEAN statistics, drive regional integration through enhanced data systems and provide critical tools to improve data accuracy and consistency across ASEAN,” it added.

Under the ASEAN-Help-ASEAN Framework for ACSS Capacity Building, DoSM has played an active role by contributing expertise in six training programmes, it said.

“In addition, DoSM has strengthened its knowledge and skills by participating in 17 training programmes with ASEANstats, sharing the benefits and knowledge gained with other ASEAN Member States (AMS) in the spirit of regional cooperation,” it said.

DoSM said it chaired the Working Group on System of National Accounts from 2021 to 2024, highlighting advancements in data harmonisation and sharing its experiences in national data governance, data stewardship and integration to strengthen the ASEAN data ecosystem.

The statistics department said ACSS14 brought together 35 participants, including heads of national statistics offices and ACSS-SCPC focal points from all 10 AMS, as well as international representatives, highlighting the crucial role of development partners in strengthening ACSS' framework, improving data comparability, and addressing statistical capacity gaps.

Mohd Uzir expressed excitement about hosting ACSS15 in Malaysia next year and encouraged active participation from all AMS to advance ASEAN and global statistical goals.

He urged everyone to stay safe, focused and united.

DoSM said next year, as ASEAN chair, Malaysia will play a key role in enhancing regional and global cooperation across various sectors, including economy, trade, security and statistics.

“In this context, DOSM and statistical agencies worldwide play a crucial role in providing data for decisions by governments, investors and international organisations,” it said.

At the global level, DoSM said the UN Statistical Commission, meeting annually, ensures official statistics meet international standards, guiding methodologies and materials.

It said the existence of robust statistical services can provide comprehensive statistics to help make the right decisions at the national and global levels.

ACSS serves as the highest policy-making and coordinating body for ASEAN statistics established in 2011, succeeding the ASEAN Heads of Statistical Offices Meeting, which had been convened since 1997.

-- BERNAMA