Perak Ruler: Statistics crucial for govt planning

SUNGKAI: The achievement of a country’s socio-economy is assessed and monitored through statistics, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah said.

The Sultan of Perak said statistics had always been a referral to guide a government in drafting development plans.

He said an inaccurate interpretation could lead to bad planning, wrong decisions or unwise actions, which would then fail to achieve the targeted goals.

“To ensure that statistics continue to play an important role in proper planning, three factors must be followed.

“Statistics must be collected comprehensively and presented in a consistent manner after checking its accuracy and validity, and it must be objectively interpreted,” he said in his speech at the opening of the Malaysia Statistics Training Institute building yesterday.

He said with the country facing a “fourth industrial revolution wave”, the demand for all levels of society to possess relevant, accurate and up-to-date information was vital.

The wave, known as “Big Data”, has the potential to help enhance decision-making abilities, he said.

The situation not only demanded that data be collected and processed using modern methods, but also disseminated quickly, widely and in an interactive way to help the decision-making process, he added.