This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 9, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will for the first time host the biennial International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress (ISI WSC) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here from Aug 18 to 23.

The 62nd ISI WSC is organised by the International Statistical Institute (ISI), in collaboration with the Department of Statistics Malaysia, Bank Negara Malaysia and Malaysia Institute of Statistics.

It is supported by the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau, an agency under the ministry of tourism, arts and culture.

“The congress will bring together about 2,500 delegates from 130 countries, comprising statistical researchers, academia, industry practitioners, analysts, policymakers and thought leaders from all over the world who will be sharing insights on development in statistical science and to advance application of statistics for discovery, innovation and decision making with about 1,800 papers to be presented and discussed over a period of six days,” said Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin (pic) in a statement yesterday.

Mohd Uzir, who is also the chairman of the event’s national organising committee, said the topics for discussion will range from statistical methods and concepts, data compilation and management, technology, data science and analytics, Big Data, and their applications across all segments of the economy and life.

Supporting the congress are strategic partners and institutions such as Telekom Malaysia Bhd, CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd, Permodalan Nasional Bhd, SAS Institute Malaysia, ESRI and Ocean Bridge Sdn Bhd.

Funders include World Bank Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building, Asian Development Bank, Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries, European Free Trade Association and American Statistical Association.