The Qatari capital, Doha, hosted on 30 September - 2 October 2013 a regional workshop on industrial statistics and classifications for the Arab countries. The workshop was jointly organized with the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the New York-based United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO).
Contributing to the development of industrial statistics in the Arab region; building national capacities, improving the provision of quality industrial statistics and their consistency and comparability through assisting the Arab countries in the application of the latest economic classifications and relevant international recommendations were the main objectives of the workshop. The meeting also aimed at developing a framework of cooperation and coordination at the national levels among the concerned government agencies producing industrial statistics in a conducive manner to reliable economic and investment policy making, and in collecting, compiling and disseminating industrial statistics.
The participants, coming from government entities producing industrial statistics in sixteen Arab countries and from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) standardization organization, formulated a number of recommendations stressing the need to introduce a coordination mechanism between concerned entities at the national level for classifications implementation; and the adoption of a unique classification to be used by all entities and to introduce the needed and supportive legislations. Finally, and due to the high frequency of updating international classifications, the workshop called on the organizers to organize training workshops on the forthcoming UNSD implementation guide for International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) in addition to expediting the provision of the Arabic versions of the classifications and guides similar to the other UN official languages.
