Naypyidaw – The Director General of Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Giampaolo Cantini, and Tommaso Di Fonzo, director of ISTAT’s School of Statistics and Social and Economic Analysis, signed an agreement today to provide technical assistance to Myanmar’s statistics authorities. The project, worth €185 377, will cover the development of a statistical law, planning and methodology of statistical research, the development of technological infrastructure, data protection and the establishment of a births registry. The initiative will be implemented alongside the first general population census carried out after decades, to which Italy also contributes, and which will allow Myanmar to acquire the necessary statistics to plan their development policies in order to reduce poverty. Cooperation between Italy and Myanmar was re-launched after democratic reforms in the Asian country were announced. These allowed, among other things, the election to the Burmese Parliament of human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and the removal of international sanctions imposed on the country during the years of military dictatorship. (9Colonne)
