Minister directs PBS officials to prepare five-year strategic plan

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal has directed the top officials of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to prepare a comprehensive five-year strategic plan to modernise the PBS.

The federal minister directed the top officials of PBS to form a task force involving experts from the private sector to study global best practices for data and present a five-year strategic plan for reforming the PBS.

The minister gave these directions in a high level meeting with top officials of Planning Ministry and PBS at P-Block Secretariat on Monday.

The minister directed the concerned authorities to immediately form a task force consisting of experts from all departments and said that the task force would prepare recommendations in the light of trends in technology and modern methods of data collection and analysis around the world to modernise PBS.

Emphasising the urgent need for data-driven decisions, the minister instructed PBS to identify tehsils with high numbers of out-of-school children for targeted education initiatives.

The planning minister further instructed the facilitation of development data dissemination at the constituency level, enabling political representatives to enhance their districts through data-driven decision-making, promoting a culture of ownership, accountability, and responsive governance.

Furthermore, the minister instructed PBS to prioritise the production of high-quality economic reports, ensuring accurate national rankings, identifying and addressing data reporting gaps, and maintaining the highest standards of data authenticity.

During an important meeting held regarding the reforms of PBS, Chief Statistician Dr Naeemuz Zafar presented suggestions related to various areas of the institution that need to be developed and innovated. During the briefing, he informed Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal and other participants that the process of data collection and data distribution needs to be developed on modern lines. During the meeting, the senior official gave proposal for setting up a data centre.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024