The Sub-regional Course/Workshop on “New challenges in Economic Statistics’ was conducted from 15- 19 November  2008 in Tehran, Islamic republic of Iran under the outreach training programme of SIAP for the countries in Central Asia and Azerbaijan and Islamic Republic of Iran. The training was conducted as a bilingual course using English and Russian languages. The presenters made their presentations in English medium while interpretations were provided by the UNECE. The course was conducted at the Guest House premises of the Statistical Centre of Iran (SCI) in Tehran. Resource persons from UNECE, UNSIAP and UNESCAP were present for the training while Iran provided lodging and administrative facilities for training. The main objective of the course was to strengthen the capacity of the selected countries including Iran government for producing Economic data with special reference to short term economic indicators and price statistics while addressing issues relating to compilation of national accounts and implementation of SNA 2008.

Two participants each from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan joined the training while one each from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were present. There were 5 officials from Iran making a total of 13. All were senior level officers who are responsible for compilation of National Accounts/ Price statistics in their respective NSOs.
The course focused on the following areas for training: a.)Understand the framework of SNA93, its revision in 2008 and issues and challenges in implementation of SNA2008   b) Production, International economic classifications and recommendations on Short term economic statistics c) Fixed based indices and Price statistics d) Seasonal adjustments on time series data using Demetra software e) SDSS and Dissemination of Statistical information.
All the training materials were provided to participants in a CDROM at the end of the course. Russian version of SNA material available with UNSIAP was distributed for the benefit of the participants from the CAC and Azerbaijan. Other materials will be translated and provided to the participants by the UNECE in due course.
Training was conducted using delivery of lectures, hands-on practical exercises using data and Demetra software, discussions, and group exercises. Visits to SCI and other important institutions were included in the programme.
Course was conducted for five days from 9.15 to 16.15 Saturday through Wednesday. Certificates were awarded to 13 participants who successfully completed the training.
Participants evaluated the content of the course to be very useful (62%) and useful (38%).
The SCI expressed their happiness of the outcome and keen interest to collaborate with SIAP in conducting further country courses for their officials as well as was willing to provide their facilities for future courses. Dr. Tagih Torabi, Head of Statistical Training and Research Center (SRTC) of SCI participated both at the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the programme and gave away the certificates.