Mr. Ma Jiantang Attended the Second BRIC Statistical Commissioners Conference

On invitation of Dr. Eduardo Pereira Nunes, President of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the second BRIC (Brazil, Russia , India and China) Statistical Commissioners Conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 29 November to 1 December. A delegation headed by Mr. Ma Jiantang, Commissioner of NBS of China, attended the conference.

The first formal meeting of BRIC leaders was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia in June 2009, and the second was hosted in Brasilia in April 2010. In coordination with the formal meeting, BRIC Statistical Commissioners started the first conference in New York in February 2010, and decided to compile and publish the United Statistics Handbook of BRIC once a year for tabulating the major statistical data of the four countries, and to edit in turn by four Bureau of Statistics and make it a reference use for four countries leaders at the time of formal meeting.

At the second BRIC Statistical Commissioners Conference, the four commissioners gave a high praise on the first Handbook published in early 2010. Mr. Ma Jiantang pointed out that Bureau of Statistics of BRIC had accomplished successfully to compile the Handbook in English vision under the better cooperation and conquering difficulties, which had provided full and accurate statistical data for four countries leaders at the second formal meeting, and got a high affirmative praise by them. Mr. Ma indicated that the third formal meeting of BRIC leaders will be held in China in 2011, NBS, as the chief-editor, will make further improvement on the quality and layout effects based on the first Handbook, so as to provide high quality of services for the next formal meetings.

The BRIC Statistical Commissioners talked about concerning issues on how to make further strength on statistical cooperation. Mr. Ma Jiantang pointed out that, as emerging economies, BRIC had taken more and more important roles in the international stage. The Bureau of Statistics of BRIC shall make further cooperation with the needs of the countries development of BRIC. Mr. Ma put forward to building regular exchange mechanism among BRIC Statistical Commissioners, and holding Statistical Commissioners Conference in the country where the formal meeting of BRIC leaders is conducted, in order to discuss statistical cooperation among BRIC, moreover pay more attention on deep discussion on one or some certain fields, so as to promote the common development of BRIC on statistical works. Other three Statistical Commissioners were all agreed with the advices. It was decided at the conference that there will be held a technical conference by BRIC statistical experts in China in January 2011 to talk about the detailed compilation works on Untied Statistics Handbook 2011; as well as to hold the third Statistical Commissioners Conference in China in Autumn 2011.

Mr. Ma Jiantang and heads of Russian and Indian statistical agencies were also invited to attend press release on the results of Population Census 2010 inBrazil, and discussed on the techniques of data collection on Population Census and their applications in the current surveys with IBGE

Mr. Ma Jiantang and his entourage including Messrs. Du Weiqun, Director-General of Department of International Cooperation of NBS, Pen Zhilong, Director-General of Department of National Accounts, Wen Jianwu, Director-General of International Statistical Information Center, and Ms. Wang Lixia, Director-General of Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Statistics, participated the conference.