Georgetown : Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh today called for a cultural reorientation whereby Governments, businesses and individuals alike, rely more on readily available empirical data in everyday decision making rather than anecdotal opinions and accounts which are often far removed from reality.
He was at the time delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 39th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) and the 24th meeting of the Regional Census Coordination Committee (RCCC). The event which was held at the Princess Ramada Hotel, Providence, saw the participation of statisticians from across the region.
The SCCS was established in 1974 to provide sound, relevant and timely statistics in guiding sustainable social and economic development of the Region. This is the first time that Guyana is hosting this meeting since the establishment of the SCCS 40 years ago.
There can be no serious policy-making or decision-making in the absence of strong and reliable data. This he said, is and should not be confined only to the Government, but also be applied to decisions at the corporate and household levels.
Minister Singh informed that the Guyana Bureau of Statistics is often inundated with requests from the corporate world for a vast array of data which serve to inform future plans such as investment, diversification and expansion opportunities and/or to better understand demographic and market trends.
“The data generated by offices such as yours, literally shape the decisions made in the corporate boardrooms of the region, and indeed Cabinet rooms of the region. Yours is an extremely important responsibility, and I am pleased with how this responsibility has been discharged in Guyana,” the Minister said.
The Bureau of Statistics was established as a department in 1957, but prior to this, the collection and publication of statistics was decentralised and assigned to a few key government departments. In 1990, an Act of Parliament 1990 incorporated the Bureau as a semi-autonomous body, outside the purview of the traditional Public Service.
Minister Singh gave the example of individuals pursuing studies at the University of Guyana without taking into account the demands of the labour market.
You are making a decision that will influence the job opportunities that will become available to you, and the income that you will be able to earn…I want to make the call for more of our citizens and corporate entities to make decisions on the richness of data that is available,” Minister Singh said.
He also called on the academic community and the media to sufficiently treat with the abundance of available data to better address developmental challenges in the region and to better understand some of the phenomena that are observed.
Assistant Secretary General, CARICOM, Colin Grandison pointed out that Information Communication Technology (ICT) has to be the tool to power the data revolution. He noted too, that statistics is indispensible in the planning and monitoring of developmental objectives.
Meanwhile, Director of the Regional Statistics Programme of the CARICOM Secretariat, Dr. Philomen Harrison in her remarks spoke of issues that affect the work of statisticians in the region and the world over such as availability of adequate resources, principles of independence and confidentiality, and the development of the profession.
“I would like to urge fellow directors of statistics and chief statisticians to continue to be passionate about your work while being vigilant. There is a lot more to be accomplished by statisticians in serving countries,” Dr. Harrison said.
The theme under which these two meetings are being held is, “Data revolution for sustainable development in CARICOM – designing and operationalising a framework for statistics”.
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