MUSCAT — Board Members of the GCC Statistical Centre held their first meeting at Barr Al Jissah Resort here yesterday under the chair of Mohammed Ahmed al A’amir, President of the Central Informatics Organisation (CIO) in Bahrain and Board Chairman of the GCC Statistical Centre. The meeting discussed matters related to the launch of the actual work of the centre to set the financial and administrative frameworks to enable the centre to carry out its work in its assigned areas of competence.

The meeting touched on the requirements of commencing the center’s actual work phase as the GCC Leaders approved the statute of the centre at the Bahrain Summit, which was held in December 2012. The board members also reviewed a number of topics related to the centre, including a report of the Director General, the financial and administrative procedures and what is related to setting up an integrated identity of the centre, as well as outlining the preparatory action plan for setting up the organisational structure of the centre.

The establishment of the centre stems from the pressing need for a supportive, complementary and co-ordinative centre on the statistical issues among the member states. There has been also a pressing need for an expertise house that provides the technical support and training for the statistical cadres and leads the statistical work in the GCC countries.