United Nations – Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) hold Asia-Pacific Economic Statistics Week (APES) on 17-21 June 2019, in United Nations Convention Center (UNCC), Bangkok, Thailand. APES Week is designed as an annual forum of regular substantive exchange that is in sync with the capacity development agenda of the region defined by the Regional Programme on Economic Statistics. The Regional Programme on Economic Statistics, which provides the framework for the development of economic statistics in Asia and the Pacific, is in its second phase (2015-2017) with increased regional funding and reiterated commitment from member states.
APES Week 2019 features a four-day seminar; exhibits; the eight meeting of the Steering Group for the Regional Programme on Economic Statistics; and project support meetings. The seminar is designed within the RPES for Asia and the Pacific, under the theme “Integrating economic statistics in monitoring the 2030 Agenda”. This year, the seminar drew interests from more than a hundred authors across the region with topics focusing on: 1) alternative data sources for production of official economic statistics and SDG indicators; 2) emerging issues in economic statistics, and 3) communicating economic statistics.
Through careful evaluation and quality review, 32 papers from national stakeholders and three development partners were accepted. The seminar showcases key findings on national studies and research on economic statistics conducted by practitioners and experts on the field with one high-level discussion; three plenary sessions and six parallel sessions. It covers the following topics: monitoring sustainable development and the future of economic statistics; emerging techniques in using big data; use of administrative data; challenges in national accounts estimation; creative and digital economy; new techniques for tourism statistics; price statistics; data integration; and communication and use of economic statistics.
STIS Polytechnic of Statistics (Politeknik Statistika STIS) and Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS) participate and present papers with total 20 papers in this agenda. These papers are results of researches by students, lecturers, and BPS’s officials. Some papers which are part of big data research conducted by Center for Computational Statistics Studies (lead by Setia Pramana and Siti Mariyah) are even presented in plenary sessions. Here is the list of some presented papers:
Parallel session 1: Challenges in national accounts estimation
Monthly and sectoral disaggregation of Indonesia's gross fixed capital formation- Anisa Muna Madjidah and Nasrudin
Plenary session 1: Emerging techniques in using Big Data
a. Subjective happiness index based on twitter in Indonesia- Asita Sekar Asri and Siti Mariyah
b. Development of a big data analysis system (case study: unemployment statistics)- Maftukhatul Qomariyah Virati, Rachmi Agustiyani, Siti Mariyah, and Setia Pramana
Parallel session 4: Creative and digital economy
Use of digital currencies in measuring Indonesia’s digital economy- Lovaditya Dhika Primaganis and Nasrudin
Plenary session 2: The future of price statistics
Study of consumer price index based on e-commerce in Indonesia- Alifa Putri Wijaya and Siti Mariyah
APES Week 2019 is attended at least 13 countries from Asia-Pacific which are Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Iran, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, China, Maldives, Fiji, Timor Leste, New Zealand, Myanmar, and UN Statistical Division. In the plenary and parallel sessions, STIS and BPS share to the forum what we have studied, what lesson learned we got in this study, what challenges and opportunities we have in order to enhance official statistics and provide accurate statistics for SGDs measurements. (Sumber: Siti Mariyah, MT)