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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordanian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury said his country has started the implementation of “Sustainable Growth 2030 Agenda” in accordance with the national priorities.

According to the minister, a roadmap including social awareness, integration plans on the national and domestic levels, capacities’ building in this field, along with the calculation of costs to fulfill sustainable growth’s goals, building of monitoring and assessment system, and enhancement of the national statistics system through the department of general statistics has been set.

He added that the comparison applied on performance indices in the country showed that the available data with clear calculation mechanisms cover only 40 percent of goals, which expose Jordan to a major challenge in the coming phase. He saw that approaches should be adopted to provide data to cover the remaining 60 percent of calculation indices, and empower the role of statistics department so it becomes the only reference to adopt the quality of statistics data, which is a worldwide challenge.

Speaking at the opening of the second workshop for drafting the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) 2018-2022, the minister explained that statistical data reflect the economic, social and demographic conditions, and represent one of the main pillars in setting politics, plans, and correct decision making on the national level. He also pointed out that the national strategy of statistics is a cornerstone to set and evaluate plans and politics, and to take the right decisions in the economic, social, and demographic fields, in order to serve the goals of sustainable growth.

The strategy is the base in fulfilling the Jordan Paper 2025 and its executive developmental program 2016-2019, in addition to the sustainable growth indices adopted by the United Nations in 2016, and to which Jordan has been committed. The national volunteering will be introduced to implement the Agenda 2030 in the high-level political forum set to be held in the United Nations this month.

The minister added that developing a national strategy for statistics requires evaluation and review of legal and institutional frames, and the human staff of statistical panels in all the institutions responsible for statistical data, aiming to enhance them and improve the capacities of staff in this field. The development of this strategy emphasizes the government keenness through the public statistics department on adopting the concept of constant improvement and the best international practices in calculations, surveys, and statistic-related processes.

Fakhoury said the success in implementing the national strategy of statistics depends on how much the concerned institutions will adopt and commit to their responsibilities in developing the statistical system. It is known that the national strategy of statistics in its first phase includes ten sectors including economy, finance, energy and environment, health, housing, education, labor, transport, telecommunication and businesses record.

These data can be used in predicting the future of different phenomena, which will lead to better planning, and avoidance of crises before they happen or at least reducing their impact. Data also play primordial role in regularly evaluating the politics, plans, and programs.

He finally explained that that the plurality of party assigned to conduct statistics in all countries, including Jordan, leads to the emergence of many concepts and calculation approaches, which means reaching different numbers and results. Therefore, the national law said that only the general department of statistics has the right to regulate the statistic-related works.

*Asharq Al Awsat