ICPREGIONALCOORDINATORSMEETING.docVIP

ICP REGIONAL COORDINATORS’ MEETING ICP Asia Pacific: Regional Report (March 7-11, 2005) Washington, D.C., U.S.A Introduction This report covers accomplishments of ICP Asia Pacific since the last Regional Coordinators’ Meeting held in Washington, D.C. on 27 September to 1 October 2004. II. Recent Developments The Regional Office (RO) assisted the participating countries in the conduct of in-country training for their price collectors for ICP price surveys and ToolPack. This training was conducted in eighteen (18) countries namely: Bangladesh; Bhutan; Cambodia; China; Fiji; India; Indonesia; Lao PDR; Malaysia; Maldives; Mongolia; Nepal; Pakistan; Philippines; Sri Lanka; Taipei,China; Thailand; Vietnam. The Global Office (GO) assisted in the ToolPack training for China and the Philippines, while the Australian Bureau of Statistics also provided China additional training on the conduct of ICP price surveys in rural areas. The consultant for ICP Asia Pacific reviewed the sampling plans submitted by the countries and comments were sent to them as bases for further improvement of their price surveys. A few countries accordingly revised their sampling plans and re-submitted these to the RO. A “Field Officers’ Manual for Price Collection” was prepared by the ICP Asia Pacific consultant based on the 2004 ICP Manual and papers by John Austin. The manual contains notes for supervisors on how to get started with the price surveys; conduct surveys; and data requirements for ICP. It also addresses the needs of price collectors on how to get started/conduct the price surveys and features a “Situation and Response Sheet” which guides the price collectors on courses of action for anticipated problems in the field. This was used as training material for the in-country training of price collectors. Status of ICP Price Surveys in the Asia Pacific Region Starting Dates of ICP Price Surveys With the exception of India and Sri Lanka, all participating countries in t