In its capacity as the Secretariat of the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-StatCom), SESRIC, in collaboration with Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, organised the 8^th Session of the OIC-StatCom at its Headquarters in Ankara on 23-25 October 2019.

The Session was attended by more than 37 representatives of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) from 29 OIC countries and 10 representatives from 9 international organisations.

The 8^th Session of OIC-StatCom commenced with the Holy Qur’an recitation, which was followed by the addresses of Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin, Chief Statistician of Malaysia and Chairman of the 8^th Session of OIC-StatCom; HE Mr. Nebil Dabur, Director General of SESRIC; Mr. Jakhongir Khasanov, Representative of the OIC General Secretariat; and Dr. Bukhari Sillah, Representative of the Islamic Development Bank Group.

As honourable guest, HE Mrs. Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk, Minister of Family, Labour, and Social Services of Republic of Turkey also addressed the 8^th Session of OIC-StatCom. In her speech, HE Mrs. Selçuk underlined the importance of high-quality statistics for evidence-based decision making on socio-economic development plans and their implementation. At the end of the Opening Session, a plaque of appreciation was presented by HE Mr. Nebil Dabur, Director General of SESRIC, to HE Mrs. Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk for her exceptional contributions to SESRIC and OIC.

After the Opening Session, the Secretariat of OIC-StatCom informed the participants about the amendments proposed on the Rules of Procedure of the Commission. The participants unanimously adopted these amendments concerning the formation of the Bureau, periodicity and venue of the Main Session and Follow-Up Meeting, and quorum.

The Session went on with the presentation by Malaysia – in their capacity as the Co-Chair of the Working Group – on the Progress Report on the Development of the New Strategic Vision of OIC-StatCom 2030. The participants welcomed the Progress Report and requested the Secretariat and Chair to remind the Commission members that have not responded to the questionnaire on the Strategic Vision to submit their responses as soon as possible and accordingly finalise the Strategic Vision and the 5 Year Programme of Action for the adoption at the 9^th Session in October 2020.

The first day of the Session additionally covered the presentations of UNSD, UNESCWA, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia on "Electronic Data Collection Technologies in Population and Housing Censuses".

During the second day of the Session, the participants found the opportunity to listen to the presentations of FAO, Palestine, and Turkey on "Census of Agriculture for the 21^st Century", and ILO, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Somalia, and Turkey on "Developing National Statistics Systems on International Labour Migration".

At the Closing Session, the members of the OIC-StatCom adopted the Resolutions of the 8^th Session and decided to convene again in the first week of October 2020.

All the documents, reports, presentations and other related materials of the 8^th OIC StatCom Session are available at the link: https://www.sesric.org/files/2218-DOCUMENTS-.zip

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