Vienna-Based Agencies Kick-Start WSD Week-Long Exhibit

 

VIENNA, 13 October – The United Nations agencies based in Vienna and the Austrian national statistics office today marked World Statistics Day with an official opening of an exhibition on statistics at the Vienna International Centre (VIC). During the event, representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Office for Drug and Crime (UNODC) together with Statistics Austria unveiled an exhibition featuring a variety of statistical information, publications and services produced by these institutions.

 

The Executive Director of UNODC and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, Yury Fedotov, the Director-General of UNIDO, Kandeh K. Yumkella, Director of the IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Power, Jong Kyun Park (on behalf of the Director General the IAEA, Yukiya Amano) and the Director of “Population Statistics”, Statistics Austria (STAT) and President of the Austrian Statistical Society, Werner Holzer, took part in the opening ceremony. The Chief Statistician of UNIDO, Shyam Upadhyaya and the Chief of Statistics and Surveys Section of UNODC, Angela Me also attended.

 

For the IAEA, authoritative energy statistics are essential for successful policies to expand energy access while reducing costs and environmental impacts. For countries interested in nuclear power, statistics such as those in the Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) of the IAEA help ensure well informed evidence-based choices.

 

UNIDO maintains an industrial statistics database and disseminates high quality data on industrial growth and structure worldwide. Access to UNIDO databases has helped many countries around the world to set their industrial development agenda and to compare their performance with other countries. UNIDO industrial statistics which measure progress on productivity, innovation and technology, are used globally by research institutes and others working in the field of industrial development.

 

The UNODC regularly publishes statistical information on the situation of illicit drugs and crime worldwide. Its statistics are essential to understand the evolution of illicit drug markets and the level of drug use in the world. UNODC data is also a unique source for measuring the level of crime worldwide. This knowledge continues to drive the national and international debates and policies on how to combat drugs and crime. UNODC also supports countries to strengthen their capacity to improve the quality and availability of their drug and crime statistics.

 

Examples of statistical products developed by UNODC include survey reports on the cultivation and production of illicit drugs such as the recently published Afghan Opium Survey 2010 Summary Findings, corruption, crime victimization surveys; analysis of trends in the world drug situation (included in the annual World Drug Report), and a global database on conventional crimes.

 

The VIC exhibition to mark World Statistics Day highlights the many achievements of official statistics and the core values of service, integrity and professionalism in providing unbiased, transparent and relevant statistics to the public and the policy makers. It will run from 13-19 October and can be viewed as part of the guided tours of the VIC, organized by the United Nations Information Service Visitors Service. The three United Nations agencies and Statistics Austria will also hold an interagency seminar on contemporary statistics topics on 14 October in the VIC with speakers from all four organizations.

 

UNIDO Director-General Yumkella (Left) with his Chief Statistician, Upadhyaya Shyam, and the Executive Director of UNODC and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, Yury Fedotov (Right), in Vienna, 13 October 2010. Photo by Ravindra Wickremasinghe/UNIDO