OFFICIAL VISIT BY THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL OF PAKISTAN, BUREAU OF STATISTICS TO THE STATISTICAL CENTRE OF IRAN

 Dr. Bahrawar Jan, Deputy Director General of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) paid an official visit to the Statistical Centre of Iran (SCI) from 13 to 16 June 2015. This visit was arranged within the framework of the MoU signed on statistical cooperation between the Statistical Centre of Iran and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

At the start of the bilateral meetings of this visit, Dr. Adel Azar, Head of the SCI welcomed the esteemed Pakistani delegate and reiterated on the SCI intention for expansion of ties and cooperation with the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) of the neighbouring states as well as the ECO and OIC member countries. He referred to the Pakistan's strengths in theoretical aspects of sciences and said that Iran had also valuable experiences and achievements in applied sciences and collaboration between the SCI & the PBS and sharing technical knowledge and experiences in these fields could pave the way for further developments of national statistical systems in both neigbouring countries.

Dr. Jan gave his words of thanks for hospitality arrangements made by the SCI and extended the invitation of Chief Statistician of PBS to Dr. Adel Azar for visiting the PBS in near future. He added that Iran had a very strong National Statistical System; and as an indication of this strength, Dr. Jan referred to uninterrupted process of censuses and surveys in I.R. Iran even during the period of Imposed War.  During the visit, a short review on the history of statistical activities and censuses in Iran, dating back to Ancient Iran and Achaemenid era was delivered by In-charge, Office of the Head, Public Relations and International Cooperation which followed by an introduction to activities of the Office of the Head,Public Relations and International Cooperation as well as presentations on the activities of the Statistical Research and Training Center of the SCI and Office of Planning, Performance Monitoring and Secretariat of High Council of Statistics. Introduction to the activities of the other Offices of the SCI, including activities of the offices under the ICT Centre of the SCI, and the offices affiliated to the Deputy for Statistical Surveys and Administrative Registers, and the Deputy for Economy and National Accounts were also parts of bilateral meetings during 13 and 14 June 2015, all followed by extensive technical discussions and question and answer sessions. These sessions were very productive for both parties in giving a better understanding of their NSOs.

 On Monday, a provincial visit to the Office of Statistics, Information and GIS of the Management and Planning Organization of the Alborz Province was arranged for the visiting delegate to make him familiar with the activities. A field visit was also planned to provide him with detailed information and hands –on experience on statistical surveys in Iran.

Dr. Bahrawar Jan left Iran on Tuesday 16 June 2015.