On the occasion of Qatar Statistics Day and International Year of Statistics, the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics organized the Forum on (Statistics and Development in the State of Qatar: Data Availability Challenges) on December 10, 2013, under the auspices of His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the State of Qatar.   His Excellency Dr. Saleh bin Mohamed Al Nabit, Minister of Development Planning and Statistics of the State of Qatar, and His Excellency Mr. Saber bin Said Al Harbi, General Director of the GCC Statistical Center confirmed, in their inaugural speeches of the forum, the importance of accurate and sound official statistics in formulating policies and strategies, and in monitoring the progress attained by the national development strategies.    A number of ministries, authorities, regional and international organizations delivered scientific presentations on various statistical matters that concern the national statistical work. In addition, a presentation on Malaysia showed how this latter uses the statistical data to formulate the national development strategies, and measure progress and well-being. The forum also tackled the development and update of the national statistical system by using the modern statistical methods and up-to-date technologies etc. The presentations, which were delivered over two days, affirmed the fulfillment of the national and international users’ needs for statistical information, and the response to the international initiatives related to the statistical work and its developments.    At the conclusion of the forum, which was attended by almost 300 representatives from governmental and private agencies, the participants reached the following recommendations:    The final recommendations and remarks:  1. To respond to the invitation of the high level report, which was submitted to the UN Secretary General in May 2013, on the information revolution to confront the availability challenges of statistical data and information.  2. To evaluate the available statistical data, and identify its gaps by conferring with the data users to arrange for the second generation of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (2014-2019).  3. To develop and update the institutional frameworks to identify the current and future needs for the statistical data that are necessary for the National Development Strategy (2011-2016) and future strategies, through consultation with the governmental and private agencies, and civil society organizations.  4. To draft a comprehensive national framework that pinpoints the required statistical data in order to measure progress and well-being, and to benefit from the leading experience in this field, such as OECD.  5. To accelerate the development of a framework, which was previously prepared, aiming to generate high quality official statistics, and to be nationally generalized and adopted by the entire data producers in Qatar.  6. To regularly evaluate the level of working by the official statistics fundamental principles, which were adopted by the UN Statistics Commission in 1994. To maintain the data confidentiality of individuals and companies according to the Qatari Statistics Law.  7. To establish a cooperation mechanism with the GCC Statistical Center to produce the data necessary to promote collaboration and regional complementarity among the GCC countries.  8. To set up a comprehensive plan to build the statistical capacity in Qatar, in cooperation with the national universities, Arab and Islamic institutions such as the Arab Institute for Training and Statistical Research, the Arab League and the Islamic Conference, and with the International Organizations such as the UN Statistics Division, ESCWA, UN Fund for Population and UNESCO Institute for Statistics , Paris 21 partnership in addition to other international and regional organizations.  9. To maximize the statistical work partnership between the Ministry of Development Planning & Statistics and the private sector, civil society organizations and universities in addition to the entire data users and producers in the State of Qatar, aiming to identify the necessary and priority statistical requirements to help the policy and decision makers, and the entire statistical data users.  10. To study the use possibility of big data in the official statistics system, taking into account their different sources, and the competition with the private companies which generate and use these data. To request the international and regional organizations to provide evidence defining how to use those data (big data). To form a regional task force responsible for this aspect.  11. To develop the use of geospatial information in the system of official statistics, and to benefit from the GIS in collecting and publishing statistical data.  12. To prompt the concerned authorities to provide the quantitative data which contribute to the decision making related to the research &  development, and to measure the inputs of this process regularly. To provide the comprehensive data on the economic, social and environmental conditions related to this matter.  13. To participate effectively in the preparation of the international statistical frameworks, with the aim to clearly express the statistical conceptions and classifications approved in the GCC countries.  14. To promote and regularly update the national statistical system, to be able to keep pace with the national development and the international initiatives related to the entire practical statistics aspects, such as the methods, techniques, analyses, publishing, quality assurance, collecting and processing data, management of statistical operations, and preparation of strategies and projects ..etc.