DHAKA, July 11, 2024 (BSS) - The first meeting of the National Statistics Advisory Council for the current fiscal year (FY25) was held today at the NEC conference room in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.

Planning Minister Major General (retd) Abdus Salam presided over the meeting.

The meeting reviewed the progress and significant operations of the Statistics and Informatics Division and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in line with the current government's election manifesto, progress of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics-Implementation Support Project (NSDS-ISP) funded by the World Bank; progress on the Economic Census-2023 project; various reports on Population and Housing Census and related data on socio-economic and demographic surveys; transforming BBS into an international standard institution; poverty measurement as a smart initiative (Quick Win); the progress on celebrating the 50th anniversary of the BBS, said a Ministry press release.

In the meeting, the planning minister enquired about the activities of the Statistics and Informatics Division and the BBS, the progress on Economic Census-2023 and thus gave necessary directives to make the statistical operations more fruitful and dynamic.

Apart from this, he also directed the authorities concerned to take initiative for releasing a publication on monthly basis through which the overall economic picture of the country could be known at a glance.

The planning minister also expressed his high optimism that the Statistics and Informatics Division and the BBS would play a more effective role in the country's development plans in future.