As part of the efforts to develop a Unified Statistical Strategy for the GCC Countries, the Sultanate of Oman and the General Secretariat of the GCC Countries organized a workshop on “The Formulation of the Unified Statistical Strategy of the GCC States” during 5-7 October 2009 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. This initiative was assigned to the Sultanate of Oman according to the resolution of the Ministerial Committee for Planning and Development of the GCC Countries in its nineteenth meeting, on 9 June 2009 in Muscat. The aim of the workshop was to benefit from the experiences of the international organizations in the formulation of the Strategy Document, the needed mechanisms and inputs for implementation and ensuring its success, together with developing tools for measuring and monitoring the execution of its activities.

United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman, State of Qatar and State of Kuwait were the participating countries in the Workshop. Beside the GCC Member States, International and Regional Organizations, such as Paris 21, Eurostat, UNSD, IMF, World Bank, UNESCWA, AITRS, The Arab Planning Institute, Arab Monetary Fund, Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting, UN Fund for Population GCC, League of Arab States, Information and Decision Support Centre, Arab Republic of Egypt, UNICEF-Muscat, Regional Office of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and SESRIC participated also in the Workshop. The target groups of the workshop were heads of the GCC National Statistical Offices or their deputies, Members of the team for formulation of the unified strategy, senior statisticians at: central banks, health ministries, finance ministries, manpower ministries and civil status registries.

Dr. Sıdıka Başçı, Director of the Statistics and Information Department, represented SESRIC during the Workshop. She made a presentation in the second day of the Workshop within Theme 3: Developing the Statistical Infrastructure. The title of her presentation was “Capacity Building: Priority Programmes”. Furthermore, she had mutual meetings with Paris 21, UNESCWA, Eurostat, AITRS, League of Arab States, Arab Monetary Fund, The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, United Arab Emirates-Ministry of Economy, National Statistics Office of Kingdom of Bahrain, Regional Office of the ILO and Arabian Research Bureau.

The General Secretariat of the GCC Countries, considering all views, ideas and experiences shared during the Workshop about the Unified Statistical Strategy of the GCC States, will prepare the first draft document of the Unified Statistical Strategy and share it with the participants of the Workshop to have their feedbacks towards the end of 2009.