ASEAN MALAYSIA CHAIRMANSHIP

2025 AUGUST 2025

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Malaysia Hosts The 8th Meeting of the Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators (WGSDGI8)

PUTRAJAYA, AUGUST 7TH 2025 – Under ASEAN Malaysia Chairmanship 2025, themed “Inclusivity and Sustainability,” the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) successfully hosted the 8th Meeting of the Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators (WGSDGI8) from 5 th to 6 th August 2025 in Putrajaya.

The WGSDGI, a key body under the ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS), plays a pivotal role in advancing ASEAN’s data ecosystem. It leads efforts to harmonize methodologies, align indicators and strengthen statistical capacity across Member States, ensuring SDG data is transparent, comparable and actionable. The WGSDGI8 brought together 29 delegates from the ASEAN Member States (AMS) and the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEANstats), including virtual participation from Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar.

Malaysia, as the ASEAN Chair in 2025 reaffirms its commitment to building a cohesive, inclusive and data-driven ASEAN. Malaysia aims to strengthen statistical capacity, harmonize regional indicators and ensure measurable and meaningful progress, reflecting its belief in regional solidarity, informed governance and a shared future powered by data.

In his welcoming remarks, YBhg. Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin, Chief Statistician of Malaysia and Chair of the 15th Session of the ACSS (ACSS15), emphasised that “To fulfil the commitment to ‘leave no one behind’, a clear understanding of the current situation requires relevant, reliable and timely indicators, as well as data that reflects not only regional performance but also the lived experiences of the people”.

"Therefore, AMS play an important role in this effort and the National Statistics Offices (NSOs) serve not only as data producers but also strategic enablers of evidence-based development," said YBhg. Dato’ Sri Dr. Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

The WGSDGI is a working platform involving ASEAN countries with the main focus of ensuring the achievement and monitoring of SDG indicators among ASEAN countries. The WGSDGI meeting discusses the progress, challenges and issues in the implementation of SDG indicators, as well as coordinates efforts among member states, UN agencies and international organisations in monitoring SDG progress.

The WGSDGI8 was specifically held to obtain agreement on the ASI-CT, discuss the ASEAN SDG Indicators Progress Report 2025, review the WGSDGI Multi-Year Plan (MYP) 2026-2030, update the 2026 Annual Work Plan (AWP), discuss the updated WGSDGI needs and expertise under the ASEAN Help ASEAN Framework (AHAF), review ASEAN–UN Women cooperation on Gender Statistics and present the progress of the pilot study on Small Area Estimation (SAE).

The ASEAN SDG Indicators Progress Report 2025 is expected to be published in September 2025. ASEAN currently monitors 147 main indicators or 374 including sub-indicators and additional indicators.

The WGSDGI Multi-Year Plan (MYP) 2026–2030 is aligned with the vision and mission of the ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS) and formulated based on the ACSS Action Plan 2026–2030. The 2026 Annual Work Plan (AWP) will be developed based on the WGSDGI Multi-Year Plan (MYP) 2026–2030. The ASEAN Help ASEAN Framework (AHAF) continues to be strengthened through the joint efforts of AMS in identifying needs and expertise that can be leveraged to enhance regional cooperation.

In conjunction with the hosting of WGSDGI8, the delegates also had the opportunity to experience Malaysia’s warm hospitality, reflecting the country’s commitment to creating a harmonious atmosphere and supporting cooperation within the ASEAN statistical community.

ASEAN-Malaysia 2025 Chairmanship: The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) will chair the 15th ASEAN Community Statistical System Committee (ACSS15) which aims to strengthen the statistical cooperation towards sustainable regional development.

Malaysia, for the first time, ranked as number one (1) globally in the biennial Open Data Inventory (ODIN) 2024/25 report released by Open Data Watch (ODW), surpassing 197 other countries. This achievement marks a significant leap from its 67th position in the ODIN 2022/23 assessment.

The Government of Malaysia has declared October 20th as National Statistics Day (MyStats Day), with the theme 'Statistics is the Essence of Life'. Meanwhile, the Fourth World Statistics Day will be celebrated on 20th October 2025, with the theme ‘Driving Change with Quality Statistics and Data for Everyone’.

OpenDOSM NextGen is a medium that provides data catalogue and visualisations to facilitate users' analysis and can be accessed through https://open.dosm.gov.my.

Released by:

THE OFFICE OF CHIEF STATISTICIAN MALAYSIA

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS MALAYSIA

7 TH AUGUST 2025

Press Releases

MALAYSIA HOSTS THE 8TH MEETING OF THE WORKING GROUP ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS INDICATORS (WGSDGI8)

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