The World Forum on Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies starts its works agenda today in Istanbul, Turkey, where our country participates in the Forum represented by Dr. Amin Mohie Al-Din, chairman of the Central Statistical Organization during the period 27-30 June 2007.The Forum Organized in cooperation with the European Commission, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the UN, the World Bank and in partnership with Turkish government's State Planning Office, with the participation of more than 900 experts from over 100 countries from all over the world will aim to improve the development and dissemination of social, economic and environmental indicators under the spotlight too will be how statistics are used.

The sessions will cover a broad range of themes: from migration to urban development; from climate change to innovation and from culture to happiness and the issues will be addressed by more 200 speakers of experts and academia.What is worth mentioning that the Preparatory meeting for the World Forum was held in Sana'a at the end of April 2007 during the Third Forum on Statistical apacity Building for the Arab Region, organized by the Central Statistical Organization in cooperation with Paris21 and the OECD. Where the participants emphasized the importance of partnership, policy and progress through the methods of the vailing of the official statistics with the strong mutual partnership with civil society, media, private sector and policy makers and also the importance of the methods of the policy makers in the region from the set of measures on the important issues and the focusing on what the society perceives as a key to development.