SCAD’s Management Reviews Last Year’s Achievements and Looks into its Action Plan for 2011

The management team of Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi went on a retreat over the past two days at the Sir Bani Yas resort in Abu Dhabi, during which meetings chaired by HE Butti Ahmed Mohammed Bin Butti Al Qubaisi, Director-General of the Center, and attended by all sector and department directors, section heads and advisors discussed SCAD’s plan for 2011 and reviewed the achievements realized and the experience gained in 2010, highlighting the risks and obstacles encountered during the past year and ways to overcome them in the future. The participants also shed light on the strengths and weaknesses characterizing the Centre’s performance and the tasks postponed to the current year.

 

At the outset of the retreat agenda, HE Al Qubaisi thanked everyone for their dedicated contribution to the achievements made during the year 2010, stressing the need to keep up the good work in a spirit of teamwork and to double the efforts made to put into effect the Centre’s initiatives in both the analytical and field areas of statistical work during the year 2011.

The retreat involved several sessions to discuss the strategic initiatives proposed by the sectors and departments of the Centre, the survey projects planned during the current year and ways to ensure their successful implementation, be they concerned with the Strategy and Policy, Support Services, Information and Data or Statistics sectors.

The workshop also included open discussion sessions on "How to develop our performance?", which centered on  several topics, including "Organizational development and training", "Data collection", "Dissemination", "Economic statistics" and "Social and environmental statistics",  especially the General Census of Abu Dhabi Population -, 2011.

At present SCAD issues some 40 monthly, quarterly and annual specialized publications. The Centre plans to increase and even double this number as part of the strategic plan it will be implementing in the course of the coming years.

SCAD also plans to enter into cooperation agreements with local departments and other entities based in Abu Dhabi, bringing the total number of service level agreements signed to 22 agreements that are intended to assist decision-makers, policy-planners and the business sector shape their strategic plans on the basis of accurate figures and reliable statistics to support development in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi at all levels and in all aspects.

The retreat offered an opportunity for the Centre’s senior officials to evaluate the performance of SCAD’s sectors and departments, discuss possible approaches for continued improvement and ways of overcoming of the obstacles that impede performance. The retreat wrapped up by prioritizing initiatives according to their relative importance.

Participants commended the open and constructive debate that characterized the sessions and the conclusions reached, which will have a significant impact on the progress of the SCAD’s business in the upcoming period and on the implementation of the Centre’s strategy in line with the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030.

HE Qubaisi noted that Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi is working to coordinate efforts and foster close cooperation with government and non-government entities, universities and academic research institutions and all partners involved in statistical activities in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in order to work out a more effective mechanism for cooperation between the producers and users of statistical information with a view to maximize the usefulness of statistical resources in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and build a comprehensive statistical system based on a solid scientific basis and in conformity with best international practices, in order to place the emirate’s statistical system on a par with those of the world’s top countries in this area by 2013 in terms of the quality of statistics, their relevance to the needs of users and their accuracy and timeliness.