8th ECO NFPM Meeting
Date: 21-22 April 2011
Venue: Baku - Azerbaijan

The 8th National Focal Points on Economic Research and Statistics Meeting (NFPM) of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) was held on 21-22 April 2011 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Meeting was participated by high ranking officials of research institutions and statistical offices of the ECO Member Countries, as well as the representatives of regional and international organisations. SESRIC was represented by Mr. Mehmet Fatih Serenli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department thereat.

The ECO NFPM Meeting listened to country presentation on the latest updates on both economic research and statistics, as well as on economic performance of Member States in 2010. The Meeting reviewed the activities of the Permanent Steering Committee for Economic Research, which was recently established during the First ECO Meting of Leading Economic Research Institutions (MLERI) held on 1-2 March 2010 in Tehran with the aim to develop implementation plans, coordinate the activities of ECO research institutions, update economic policy and monitor the implementation of ECO Economic Research Programme.

The Meeting also discussed the three economic policy study research projects under the framework of Joint Economic Research Programme, mainly “Prospects of Intra-Trade in ECO Region”, “Comparative Study on the Linkage between Energy Consumption and Population Dynamics in the ECO Countries” and “Alternative Energy Resources in ECO Region”. Then, the Meeting examined the activities of the ECO Statistical Network (ECOSTAT) on the mode of connecting the Member States’ NSOs to the development side o the ECOSTAT and tools of inputting secondary data on it.

Lastly, the Meeting also explored international cooperation potentials with regional and international organisations represented in the Meeting, where SESRIC has briefed on its joint activities with ECO General Secretariat on statistical training and economic research, as well as the most recent initiative of the establishment of the OIC Statistical Commission (OICStatCom), established during the First Session of the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-StatCom), organized jointly by SESRIC and the IDB, which was held in Istanbul, Turkey on 11-12 April 2011. The SESRIC representative also called upon Member States to actively exploit the OIC Statistical Capacity Building Programme (StatCaB) by actively participating in the survey conducted every two year through questionnaires and identifying their actual statistical needs and capacities.