VAC-9676 Business Statistics

Saudi Arabia has realized and sustained, for the last four decades, remarkable progress along the socio economic development path. As a result of this, the Kingdom has been able to move to a high income country. The GDP, for instance, increased from SR 156 billion in 1969 to SR 2,631 billion in 2018, putting the economy among the top 20 global economies in terms of size. Based on the annual ranking of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the Human Development Report (HDR), Saudi Arabia has steadily moved from the medium human development category in the 1990s to the very high human development category in 2018 at 0.857 value of HDI.

The Saudi Vision 2030 represents an ambitious resolve with long term goals & expectations founded on the strengths & capabilities of the Kingdom. It covers the three themes of a vibrant society, a thriving economy & an ambitious nation. A thorough review of the three themes and their underlying issues of national concern would reveal a holistic approach to development that encompasses the three dimensions of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): the social, the economic & the environmental. Saudi Arabia recognizes that achieving the SDGs requires rigorous, real time & continuous monitoring, for which quality statistics is a must. The General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) has gone through a major revision of its corporate strategy & vision in alignment with the Saudi Vision 2030 & the SDGs. The revised strategy revolves around five pillars:

• Usage of statistics & information.

• Production of statistics & information.

• Application of advanced technologies in collecting & analyzing datasets.

• Communication & awareness towards statistical knowledge.

• Governance of the statistical sector.

The General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) is the statistical reference for Saudi Arabia's socio economic development. GaStat provides comprehensive, reliable, up to date statistics & value added services in line with international standards & take the lead in developing a modern statistical sector in order to support decision making.

Business statistics department is currently working on building the Statistical Business Register (SBR) & that’s through using multiple sources of administrative data & statistical products which are conducted by GaStat. The SBR aims to provide the frame of most of the business statistics surveys & it is the source of business demography statistics & other statistics which directly derive their indicators from the SBR. In addition to, the SBR business statistics department is also working on developing & enhancing business statistics surveys.

Under the framework of the institutional support to statistics project, client provides technical support to the GaStat to strengthen the institutional & human capacities of the national statistical system to support evidence based development planning & policy making.

Within this context, our client is seeking to recruit an Economist to provide technical & advisory support to GaStat to enhance the management of financial accounts & support the improvement of the statistical business registers in compliance with SNA 2008.

The Business Statistics Expert will provide technical assistance on SBR & the entire value chain of business statistics surveys, including reviewing the surveys, survey methodology & indicators, as well as evaluating, validating & analyzing the collected data. The expert will also implement capacity strengthening activities, including staff training & mentoring. Specifically, the responsibilities under this assignment include the following:

Technical support:

• Evaluating the quality & coverage of the current frame (business frame).

• Building the structure of SBR.

• Identifying the data sources to build the SBR.

• Studying & reviewing a sample of the priority data sources to come up with the basic data requirements to build the SBR.

• Reviewing & developing survey methodologies, questionnaires & data collection methods.

• Reviewing & strengthening the coverage of the surveys.

• Reviewing & validating the collected data.

• Counselling & assisting in treating & analyzing the data.

• Counselling & assisting in visualizing survey data.

• Reviewing the indicators prior to dissemination.

• Identifying the targeted data fields for calculating the indicators of each survey.

• Specifying the sources for each data field.

• Assisting in the preparation of charts, graphs & other outputs for reporting & presentations.

• Advise in conducting new surveys, providing guidance & checklist.

• Support & provide guidance on data processing, treatment & preparation (data analysis).

• Support & provide guidance on the statistical process.

• Performing any other relevant tasks requested by the supervisor.

Capacity development:

• In addition to delivering the above mentioned technical support, the expert will advise the team on the best practices in relation to methodologies & frameworks.

• Delivering training to the staff in treating, analyzing & visualizing survey data.

• Providing coaching & on the job training for the staff as needed.

This role reports to the Director of the Digital Economy Statistics Department within the Economic Statistics General Department at GsStat.

• Ability to work on own initiative as well as a member of a team and to work under pressure.

• Excellent interpersonal skills.

• Good understanding & practice of capacity development.

• Written & oral communication skills.

• Critical thinking skills.

• Detail oriented.

This role has no team management responsibility.

• Proven working experience and understanding of economic & business concepts, indicators & frameworks.

• Ability to work on any of the statistical packages to analyze data.

• Full understanding of economic & business concepts, indicators & frameworks.

• The ability to validate, analyze & treat data.

• The ability to conduct research.

• Ability to provide statistical technical advice on different sectors.

• Excellent written, verbal & interpersonal communication skills in the English language.