Monday 17 July 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. (Canada/Eastern)
Abstract
The demand for official data and statistics has increased substantially in recent years. Reliable and timely data and statistics are more important than ever before. Data are being used in many contexts. Having visible and active national statistics producers is key to helping ensure that the public receives information that is reliable and can be used for informed decision-making. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned into the world's largest collective learning exercise ever. Global collaboration underpins this momentum. Perhaps most obvious is scientific collaboration, where governments and universities share research publicly on the impact of the pandemic on the world. The pandemic has pushed more users to be aware of the importance of data critical to survival in this crisis. The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the national statistical organization, has been instrumental in Malaysia’s development planning process for the last seven decades. To understand and overcome the phenomenon related to this unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19), the importance of data exchange and sharing across fields has gained social attention. Policymakers need data to react to the crisis. Data and data sharing management including ad-hoc data, administrative systems and existing sources become very important in times of crisis. This study examines the changes that occurred in the pattern of DOSM data requested before, during and after COVID-19 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on Malaysia’s scenario the number of data requests increased from the year 2019 to 2021 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the country and government to look more seriously at various issues that are affected.
