The Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) launched the 9th Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) Global Conference under the theme ‘Empowering Data Communities’.

Held in the Middle East for the first time, the event is a collaboration between the iGA and a number of international organisations.

The event has drawn more than 500 participants from 107 countries, including data science experts, officials from regional and international institutions, statisticians, and data users from national, regional, and international organisations, as well as academia and the private sector.

The opening ceremony commenced with a keynote address by Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) Governor Rasheed Al Maraj in which he highlighted the CBB’s dedication to the development of official statistics with a focus on enhancing monetary and financial stability while ensuring the sustainable development of the financial industry.

He emphasised the importance of high-quality official statistics that can be effectively managed and published, recognising their impact on the bank’s policies and initiatives, and adding that this information also empowers financial institutions and the general public.

Mr Al Maraj also highlighted the CBB’s commitment to offering a variety of transparent monthly and annual statistical publications, and its focus on harnessing digital technologies to improve data accessibility and utilisation, in alignment with global best practices.

He delved into the role of central banks in the decision-making processes and their interaction with international bodies such as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, noting that this helps to reduce errors and enhance the speed of data exchange.

The Governor highlighted the benefits of relying on data and SDMX to empower data communities, noting the need to provide unified information that is transparent, usable, accessible, and applicable.

He said that entities in Bahrain are actively participating in the global data revolution, recognising the transformative potential of the SDMX initiative and proactively embracing it to ensure their position at the forefront of innovation and progress.

iGA chief executive Mohammed Ali Al Qaed underlined the iGA’s core principles and unwavering commitment to turning Bahrain into a digital society, in line with the vision of the senior leadership and the directives of Interior Minister and chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Information and Communications Technology Gen Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa.

Mr Al Qaed said that successful digital initiatives rely on the availability of accurate, useful data, optimal use of advanced technologies, and supportive digital regulations and policies, such as Personal Data Protection Law and the One-Time Data policy.

He pointed out that the kingdom’s comprehensive approach to eGovernment integrates more than 15 major systems and more than 10 national systems, integrated with online public services that can be accessed by government agencies, the private sector and individuals through multiple channels.

He highlighted the efforts of the GCC Statistical Centre (GCC-Stat) in utilising statistical information to support decision-making, research, and dialogue within Gulf countries. He also mentioned the centre’s recognition by the World Bank in 2018 as one of the top 10 international institutions when it comes to open data readiness.

The General Authority for Statistics President, Dr Fahd Al Dosari said that there has been a noticeable widening in the types of mechanisms and methodologies used in official statistics, as well as those used for data collection and analysis and the development of statistical indicators.

IMF director of statistics and chief statistician Bert Kroese delivered a speech on behalf of the SDMX initiative sponsors in which he stated that the exchange of statistical data and metadata has become a necessity for data communities with the notable widening in official statistical mechanisms and methods and the ongoing development of data collection and analysis techniques and methodologies for creating statistical indicators.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development head of smart data Eric Anvar gave a keynote speech on the importance of SDMX to the exchange of statistical and descriptive data and as an enabling tool for artificial intelligence.

The opening ceremony also announced the winners of a Hackathon, in which talented developers and data experts from local, regional and international institutions came together to create an open-source, interactive web application that efficiently reads specification files and retrieves data from SDMX Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), resulting in a dynamic and interactive dashboard.

The conference running until Thursday will host a series of discussions and workshops focused on SDMX. Major international organisations collaborating with the iGA on this event include the United Nations, the World Bank Group, the IMF, the OECD, the BIS, the European Central Bank, and the International Labour Organisation. The event is also supported by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and the Central Bank of Italy.

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