On June 10^th, 2019, the Regional Workshop on Economic Globalization Statistics co-organized by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Institute (CAREC Institute) started in Jakarta, Indonesia. This workshop aims to contribute to the capacity building of National Statistical Institutes in Member Countries and hopes to set the stage for evidence-based, data driven development interventions. Participants of the workshop include representatives of IsDB and ADB member country statistical institutes, as well as officials from IsDB, ADB and CAREC Institute.

The workshop was opened by the welcoming remarks by Dr. Areef Suleman, Director, Economic Research and Institutional Learning Department, IsDB. He highlighted the new business model of IsDB and focus on “Making markets work for development” and the IsDB quest to help its member countries become more competitive and to participate more effectively on Global Value Chains (GVCs). Dr Suleman’s remarks were followed by the address of Dr Bambang Susantono, Vice President, Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development of the ADB.  Dr Susantono stressed that “data is the new oil” and that better quality, timely data will assist the achievement of SDGs in member countries and that investment in people and skills could translate to productivity gains and facilitate integration and upgrading within GVCs.

Dr. Susantono highlighted that the ADB and IsDB are currently collaborating in several areas including knowledge management, country diagnostic studies, statistical capacity building for data driven, evidence-based policy making among others. Dr. Susantono iterated that ADB is looking forward to expanding the collaboration with IsDB.

The workshop takes place between 10-13 June 2019 and will be followed by a two-day conference on June 14^th and 15^th 2019. The first day of the workshop covered the experiences and challenges of National Statistical Institutes in generating Supply Use Tables which are used for generating Input-Output Tables. Input-Output Tables are used for measuring country participation and value-added generation, and the rest of the workshop will cover hands-on statistical training in these areas.