Statistics Korea News

News > Statistics Korea News

board view

Title	Planting First Seed for the Export of Korean Statistical Infrastructure Globally
Date	2021-12-02
□ Commissioner Keunkwan Ryu, the head of Statistics Korea, visited New York City and Washington D.C., in the United States, to discuss strengthening partnerships in statistical cooperation between the National Statistics Office and international organizations from the 29th of November to December 3rd.     ○ During the visit, he signed MoUs with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and met with representatives of the UN Statistics Division (UNSD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB).     ○ He promoted the K-Statistics System which is an integrated platform that will enable data to be collected, produced and analyzed to support instantaneous decision-making in the rapidly-changing policy environment.       -  He explained that the experiences gained in the development of the K-Statistic System would be shared with developing countries. This proposal earned great support from international organizations.     [MoU with UNFPA] □ Commissioner Ryu signed the second MoU with UNFPA in New York City on November 29th, providing for cooperation between the two organizations to support population census activities in developing countries.     ○ The two organizations had reached a consensus in 2016 stipulating that they would require another MoU after the successful completion of the first MoU to support statistical capacity building in developing countries and to tackle the problem of ageing populations.     ○ Commissioner Ryu emphasized the importance of value creation by linking data from different sources; i.e. linking public health data with the population census data; something which has helped formulate policies to fight epidemics.     ○ The government of Korea has been closely cooperating with UNFPA to secure basic population data in the event of a re-unified Korean peninsula.       - In 2020, Statistics Korea created the North Korean statistics team to consolidate the collection and dissemination of North Korean statistics and has made efforts to enhance the quality of those statistics. To this end, Statistics Korea has expressed that it is crucial for it to build and maintain close cooperation with UNFPA.   [On 29 November, Commissioner Ryu (on the right) and Ib Peterson, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, met at UNFPA headquarters in New York City and signed the MoU on cooperation for population census capacity building in developing countries.]     [MoU with IDB] □ Commissioner Ryu also met with Ms. Reina Irene Mejia Chacon, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the IDB on December 1st to sign the MoU to support statistical capacity building in Latin America.     ○ This is the first MoU that Statistics Korea has signed with an international financial institution. So far, Statistics Korea has aided individual countries, but cooperation with the IDB will allow it to play a significant role in the regions’ development of statistical infrastructure. The regional multilateral development bank will work together with Statistics Korea to achieve various tasks.     ○ Statistics Korea and the IDB have reached the mutual understanding that unconventional statistical methods would be vital in strengthening statistical capacity. They will begin by co-financing a project to support the National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia, which will focus on improving the use of administrative data. Statistics Korea and the IDB Trust Fund will provide approximately 1.5 billion KRW and 500 million KRW, respectively, for two years.       - They will regularly discuss how to cooperate regarding statistical capacity building in the region as needs arise.   [On 1 December, Commissioner Ryu (on the left) and Reina Irene Mejia Chacon, the Executive Vice President of the IDB met at the IDB headquarters in Washington D.C. and signed the MoU on cooperation for statistical capacity building in Latin America.]

List

Previous Next

Contact

International Cooperation Division          E-mail : kostatint@korea.kr