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The conference emphasized the importance of SDMX as an interactive platform for statisticians, experts, and data science professionals from around the world. The initiative facilitates the exchange of statistical data, indicators, and metadata. In this regard, iGA Deputy Chief Executive, Operation & Governance, Khalid Ahmed Al Mutawa praised efforts by the authority and GCC countries to deploy digital technologies and initiatives aimed at enhancing joint statistical work in the region, noting that there is an awareness of the important role played by SDMX in the exchange and publishing of statistical and descriptive data. He also emphasized the importance of capacity building through improving education in the field, which requires efforts and support from international organizations. There also needs to be a rethinking of department structures within organizations. Support for statistical instructions in the region will help build these capabilities and achieve training goals, in addition to providing guidance for the field’s development, its academic programs, and the creation of awareness.

The conference discussed the important role of SDMX in the field of data governance and statistics, and enhancing the process of exchanging and disseminating data. It also delved into the initiative’s achievements in disseminating and exchanging information. Participants stressed that the future will be promising, leading to an expansion of knowledge, training, and skills development. The conference introduced a number of new ideas, reaffirming national efforts to raise awareness, improve cooperation, and the exchange ideas, projects and achievement through digital platforms and tools, while delving deeper into solutions to issues such as improving the level of satisfaction of those working in the field, and supporting the work of educational institutions to enhance human capital and individual capabilities. SDMX represents an interactive interface that requires further development to its standards and regulations. The importance of innovation in the area of governance was also noted and the need for the field’s own standards and statistical data, to support informed decision-making.

The first day’s sessions included an introduction to SDMX, its role and importance, and the global trend towards employing advanced systems to facilitate the exchange of descriptive and statistical data. It also highlighted the global interest in advanced modeling and the analytical capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) when deployed within statistical programmers.

Participants stressed the need to employ automated digital tools to extract data from official sources in the GCC countries and interact with them. The sessions touched on the importance of benefiting from open source large language models (LLM) to make official statistics more accessible and easy to find. They discussed integrating SDMX into large open systems of graphs and data, the importance of optimally dealing with available information, and using techniques to analyze it.

The second day’s sessions touched on the role of SDMX in enabling European Central Bank users to enhance their publishing and statistical data exchange capabilities, in addition to reviewing SDMX models such as the Eurostat project, which was launched under the title Metadata for European Microdata. This is in addition to highlighting the use of SDMX for real estate price indicators, the deployment of the technology for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) governance activities, and the enhancement of models used in the fields of agricultural and health research, as well as the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) efforts to strengthen descriptive and statistical data governance.

The third day discussed the lessons learned from implementing SDMX to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the preparation of relevant reports in the Arab World, and the experience of a number of countries in this regard, including how to improve data quality and national capacities through the deployment of metadata and SDMX, the Maldives’ experience, and others.

The last day of the conference plenary sessions highlighted GCC Statistical Center (GCC-Stat) initiatives to implement of a number of joint statistical initiatives. Several innovative statistical projects that have supported GCC decision-making were reviewed. Also discussed was the deployment of SDMX technology across the GCC through the ‘Marsa’ platform, which connects all six national statistical offices with GCC-Stat. The platform contributes to automating data collection and exchange using SDMX and the National Summary Data Pages (SDP) exchange indicator, enabling automatic sharing of statistical and descriptive data within the SDMX framework. Participants reviewed advanced technologies used to transfer metadata, automate tabulated data, build and process data, verify its quality, and auto-update, as well create multiple copies of it and make it available for exchange through the platform.

Two workshops  one for beginners and one for advanced users will be held on the sidelines of the conference(1st & 2nd November ) introducing participants to the fundamentals of SDMX, providing hand-on guidance. Their primary objective is to help attendees understand the core concepts of SDMX and equip them with the skills to design, model, and disseminate statistical data tables.

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