Shbeikat Patronized the Opening Ceremony of the Agricultural Census Data Users Needs Workshop 2007 

H.E. Dr. Gazi Shbeikat the Director General of Statistics, patronized the activities of the Workshop on the Needs of the Agricultural Census Data Users 2007, held on 23/1/2007 and lasted for one day with the participation of a number of parties from the public and private sectors and the Arab and international organizations.

In his opening speech, Dr. Shbaikat said that we live in the information age where strength of countries is judged by its information capacity, as it is the means for achieving the goals and helps us to march steadily with confidence without resorting to estimations or predictions which leads to inaccurate results.

As for the output of the Agricultural Census expected to be carried out by the Department of Statistics (DoS) during the second half of May till end of September 2007, Dr. Shbaikat said that this census will provide up-to-date and comprehensive data on the structure of the agricultural sector such as agricultural holdings and holders, land uses, livestock, agricultural labour, irrigation methods … etc. He added that this census shall cover all the holdings (plants, animals or both) in all regions of the Kingdom at the smallest administrative unit.

Dr. Shibaikat said that the DoS is going to introduce modern technology in implementing the said census through use of Handheld Devices for the first time in field data collection instead of the paper questionnaires which is anticipated to yield accurate data and dispense of some processes such as data keying and coding.

This workshop was held in line with the policy of the DoS to maintain contacts with the statistical data users as genuine partnership that should be established between the DoS (the party that produces large quantity of statistical data) and the data users in an environment of transparency and openness. He also stressed that the DoS is committed to internationally recommended methodologies, standards and classifications so that the statistical output could be put for international comparisons and satisfies the needs of policy markers, decision takers, researchers and the business sector.