The Philippine Statistical System (PSS), spearheaded by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), is now on-board in the preparations for the conduct of the 13th National Convention on Statistics (NCS) in October 2016. This triennial event aims to: (a) provide a forum for exchanging ideas and experiences in the field of statistics and for discussing recent statistical developments and prevailing issues and problems of the PSS; and (b) elicit the cooperation and support of statisticians and professionals in related fields from the government, academe and private sector towards a more responsive statistical system.

The last NCS was conducted in October 2013 where a total of 1,237 participants from the government, private sectors and academe participated. It showcased 112 papers from 47 invited paper sessions, 3 plenary sessions, 3 panel discussions, 3 contributed paper sessions, and poster sessions. Highly attended sessions were on progress of society, governance statistics, insurance statistics, econometrics and statistical modeling including time series analysis.

Government agencies such as Department of Tourism, Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of National Defense, Department of Science and Technology and the former National Statistics Office (now part of the PSA) sponsored invited paper sessions on tourism, risk management and social protection, poverty, labor and employment, peace, justice and security, science and technology, information and communications technology, and administrative-based data, respectively. In addition, private sectors and development partners like ABS-CBN and Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) sponsored plenary session papers on inclusive growth and social media, respectively.

Coinciding with the 12th NCS were the: 1) 13th Faculty-Student Conference, arranged by UP Diliman School of Statistics and UP Los Baños Institute of Statistics, and 2) Statistical Information Management Exhibition (SIMEx) highlighting the latest products, facilities and services on information management.

Come October 2016, the 13th NCS will once again gather statisticians, statistical practitioners, and data users to discuss and share recent advances in statistics such as data revolution, concepts designed to improve statistics in the country, as well as opinions and recommendations to further improve the capacity of the PSS.

As the lead institution in the conduct of the 13th NCS, the PSA is now calling on practitioners, theoreticians and researchers in the statistical and related fields to take part in the convention. Guidelines on the sessions, topics, and the format of the papers will soon be disseminated and posted on the PSA website (http://www.psa.gov.ph).

LISA GRACE S. BERSALES, Ph.D.
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General