Male’, Maldives – President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has decided to mark 20th October of every year as National Statistics Day.
According to the President’s Office, the President made this decision following discussions with the cabinet on a paper presented during today’s Cabinet meeting.
The paper, presented by the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, highlighted that the objective of designating a National Statistics Day is to “promote and develop the field of statistics in the country, including expanding usage in shaping and framing policies for decision making”.
In addition, raising public awareness and building a statistics-friendly generation are also among the key objectives of designating a National day for the field.
The decision was welcomed by the National Bureau of Statistics, in a tweet sent out following the announcement of the decision, which said that the decision shows the commitment of the government in improving data and statistics as well as to promote evidence based decision making.
We welcome President’s declaration of 20th October as National Statistics Day. It shows government’s commitment to improving data and statistics and to promote evidence based decision making. Thank you @ibusolih https://t.co/hSs9dfhNbB@presidencymv pic.twitter.com/bSFSbGvxpS
— Statistics Maldives (@statsmaldives) October 13, 2020
In a letter to the heads of state earlier this year, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr António Guterres, invited “the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, as well as civil society, research institutions, media and all producers and users of official statistics, to do their part to highlight the value of statistics in meeting the challenges of our time.”
