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The
Sixth workshop for the International Comparison Program
was held at ESCWA, Beirut during the period of April
24-28, 2006. Forty representatives from eleven ESCWA
member States including National Coordinators; Price
Experts, National Account Experts and Construction
Experts were present at the workshop. In addition, the
ICP-Deputy Global Manager from the World Bank, ICP
Regional Coordinator at ESCWA and three members of the
ICP Regional Team attended and contributed. The
objective of the 6th ICP Workshop was to bring together
the ICP national teams with the ICP regional office and
the World Bank to validate third quarter data of 2005.
In addition, a parallel workshop was held for the first
three days for construction experts from member
countries to discuss the Construction group. The last
two days were dedicated to National Accounts.
The
meeting was set out to achieve the following goals:
1. to discuss the time table for the remaining ICP round
and the future of ICP;
2. to discuss the overall regional achievements of the
program-plan since the last meeting at the fifth
workshop in December 2005;
3. to assess the progress of each country regarding
price collection and validation;
4. to review validated second quarter data submitted by
countries after the workshop in December and validate
third quarter data;
5. to discuss the new Construction SPD’s;
6. to discuss the BOCC method (Basket of Construction
Components) for Construction data collection
7. to review Basic Heading Weights submitted by
countries and discuss necessary validation tools.
Overall, the meeting achieved its objectives of
reviewing third quarter data and clarifying any
discrepancies that remained. Countries were advised to
implement these corrections as soon as possible to all
quarterly data. All members benefited from the
discussion of National Accounts, which is as important
to the program as are the collected prices. In addition,
the construction workshop succeeded in discussing with
the SPDs and methods of comparing construction between
countries. The timetable for this round of ICP was
discussed and countries were presented with deadlines.
With hard work from the Global, Regional and National
offices and adherence to the work plan, the ICP program
in Western Asia will be a success.
Agenda -
Price Revision --
Agenda -
Construction
List of Participants
Papers Presented
Meeting Report
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