SIAP in brief

 The Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (former the Asian Statistical Institute) was established in May 1970 as a centre for statistical training in Asia and the Pacific. In April 1995, the Institute was accorded the status of a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) with the establishment of a Governing Council (earlier Board) which reviews the operations and endorses the annual and long-term programmes of work of the Institute.
 

SIAP’s vision is to act as catalyst, stimulating economic and social development through building skills of statisticians.
 

To strengthen, through practically oriented training of official statisticians, the capability of the developing members and associate members and economies in transition of the region to collect, analyze and disseminate statistics as well as to produce timely and high quality statistics that can be utilized for economic and social development planning, and to assist those developing members and associate members and economies in transition in establishing or strengthening their statistical training capability and other related activities.
 

a.

To train government officials/statisticians in official statistics
 

b.

To train the trainers
 

c.

To reach wider audience through distance training and e-learning
 

d.

To strengthen partnerships and cooperation with other organizations.
 

i.

Imparted knowledge and skills to the participants of SIAP training courses make significant contribution to proper policy and decision making in their respective countries.
 

ii.

Training capabilities of participating countries will be gradually improved and sustained thereby the multiplier effect of SIAP training is maximized.
 

a. 

MDGs and other development goals
Contributing to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including MDGs, in the region. The focus of SIAP is shifting from providing NSOs with only technical skills of collection, processing and compilation of MDG related indicators to creating knowledge and skills for the NSSs to support monitoring and evaluation of national development strategies with respect to MDGs and sustainable development. Social statistics, especially those needed to produce and analyse MDGs, will be prominent in the curricula of most courses. In addition, gender related issues will be mainstreamed in all activities of SIAP.
 

b. 

Integrated economic statistics and the 2008 SNA
Strengthening capability in Integrated Economic Statistics, including implementation of the 2008 SNA. The Institute will focus training programme on the 2008 SNA as it provides a conceptual framework for coordinating economic statistics to ensure not only numerical consistency but also the conceptual consistency.
 

c. 

Application of ICT for national statistical system
Strengthening national capability in application of ICT for national statistical system. The training focus will be on statistical databases, including management and development of integrated databases for micro- and macro-data, data mining, and use of appropriate hardware with associated software for data processing, analysis and dissemination.
 

The results of the training programme of the Institute are contributing towards expected accomplishments of the ESCAP’s statistics subprogramme. The Statistics Division and SIAP each has a distinct role to play in building national statistical capacity in Asia and the Pacific. SIAP provides and facilitates statistical training in the practical applications of the international standards and methodologies, focusing on areas where those standards are already established or well developed, while the Statistics Division focuses on technical cooperation, targeting areas with emerging international standards and methodologies. The roles of the Statistics Division and SIAP were outlined in a document entitled “ESCAP strategy for technical cooperation in statistics development” (E/ESCAP/CST/3 and Corr.1), which was submitted to the Committee on Statistics at its first session.
 

SIAP has spacious, well-equipped, modern premises in Makuhari, Chiba prefecture, which is a newly developed industrial satellite city situated in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The Institute has excellent training facilities, including personal computers for each participant, and training activities conducted with the latest technology and equipment.
 

The Government of Japan, as the host government, extends co-operation to the Institute through its Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) by providing major bulk of financial resources, administrative and infrastructure support. The host Government also sponsors fellowships for all SIAP-JICA Tokyo-Metropolitan Area (TMA) based courses through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). In addition to the staff members of the Institute, a special unit of 10 staff members, assigned by MIC, provides organizational and administrative support for TMA-based courses.
 

SIAP has a director, deputy director/cum lecturer, four statisticians/lecturers, one training assistant and three supporting staff. For the conduct of its courses, SIAP also employs the services of external lecturers to augment faculty capability.