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Under the auspices of H.E. the Minister of Economy and
Trade of Lebanon Mr. Marwan Hamadeh, the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and the
World Bank organized the 1st Regional Meeting on the
International Comparison Program in Western Asia during
the period 24-27 June 2003 in the United Nations House in
Beirut.
Twenty-six representatives from eleven ESCWA member states
attended the meeting, in addition to representatives from
the League of Arab States. Experts and consultants from
the World Bank and ESCWA lectured and discussed their
papers in the meeting.
During six sessions, twenty papers were presented covering
various topics, which included an introduction to the
International Comparison Programme; and the strategy and
objectives of the programme in Western Asia region; the
governance arrangement, implementation plan and timetable;
the importance of building synergies in the region; the
national perspectives of some ESCWA member States;
improving GDP estimates; dividing GDP into basic heading
components; developing ICP list of specifications for
consumption; the integration of ICP-Western Asia with
national CPI work; the ways and problems of pricing
government services and conducting price surveys for
equipment goods, and construction and civil engineering;
measuring poverty using PPP’s; the national work plans;
the roles and responsibilities of the ICP-Western Asia
Advisory Board; and the memorandum of understanding
between ESCWA and the national implementing agencies.
Sessions were characterized by important interventions and
discussions from the participants. Impressive
demonstrations of the price statistics software used by
Oman, and the CPI/ICP ToolPack developed
by the World Bank were also presented.
Agenda
List of Participants
Papers Presented
Meeting Report
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