Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nasser Shraideh and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Rola Dashti on Thursday signed an agreement to offer the Department of Statistics (DoS) technical support, notably to improve the national accounts mechanism in Jordan.

Shraideh, during the ceremony, said that the agreement aims to improve the figures of national accounts and the capabilities of DoS staff to allow these accounts and DGP’s figures to reflect the contributions of the informal sector (grey economy).

The agreement also aims to disclose accurate details of the sub-sectors, to keep with international best practice in this area, according to a ministry statement reported by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The initiative aims to enhance the Kingdom’s cooperation with the ESCWA to create a sustainable system of national accounts in Jordan, the minister said.

The statement added that according to the agreement, the ESCWA will provide technical support to implement the project of "Supporting the Compilation System of the National Accounts Statistics in Jordan’s DoS".

He also commended the ESCWA’s support for Jordan towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and stimulating the Kingdom’s economic activity.

Highlighting the importance of the initiative, Dashti said that this project would support the Kingdom’s statistical infrastructure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as improve the quality of data to be used in economic modelling processes to assess alternatives to economic and social policies.