making, and that the government still has major responsibility for the production of statistics, the development and maintenace of the statistical infrastructure will remain a key function of any government in the future. There is, accordingly, a pressing need for Asia-Pacific developing countries to speed up the development of their statistical systems. In this regard, transparency of macroeconomic performance and policy, and dissemination of essential, reliable and timely data to market participants is important. To enhance the temporal and spatial comparability of statistics, statisticians at the national level must also improve and harmonise statistics within their statistical systems, as well as with other countries through internationally adopted statistical methodology and frameworks such as the 1993 System of National Accounts which emphasize common concepts, coverage, classification and definitions.
Human resource development in the form of training of official statisticians has always been the key to sustainable statistical development. SlAP has been conducting statistical training courses in Tokyo, as well as at country levels in collaboration or in partnership with national statistical offices or local training institutes in Asia and the Pacific. In addition to practical statistics, data analysis and interpretation, and training of trainers, SlAP courses also focus on human development indicators and the new areas of concern deliberated at recent global summint conferences.
