The 19th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium was held in Geneva by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 23-24 September, 2024.

Yusif Yusifov, Deputy Chairman of the State Statistical Committee, delivered presentations on the experience of Azerbaijan on "ICT Statistics in Azerbaijan: Key Points and Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development" during the session dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development and on "Collaboration with Stakeholders for Development: in the Context of ICT Statistics" during the session focused on financing models of ICT statistics of the Symposium. He provided participants with detailed information about the development of ICT statistics in our country over the past 20 years, the role of national and international collaboration in the development of this field, statistical observations organized to obtain data according to international recommendations and the presentation of the obtained official statistical data to users. At the same time, Y. Yusifov noted that new requirements for statistics have been formed in connection with the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), which will be hosted by Azerbaijan this year, and the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC), which has been confirmed to be held in Baku next year.

It should be noted that the main objective of the Symposium, which has been organized annually since 1996 and this year’s theme is "From Metrics to Action: Bridging Data Gaps for Universal and Meaningful Connectivity", is to support the formation of evidence-based policy by improving the statistical measurement of digital well-being, increasing the relationship between data producers and users and data provision.

The 20th anniversary of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development jointly established by 14 international organizations was celebrated at the event, a conceptual report on "Back to the future: technology, data, communication" was presented, sessions on "Data for universal and meaningful connectivity", ICT access and improving the production of statistics related to its use: the future vision of the ITU Expert Group on ICT indicators in households, Financing models of ICT statistics, Mobile phone big data: from methods to implementation, Next gen-statistics – Harnessing AI were organized.

For the information, the State Statistical Committee participated in the symposium by special invitation due to its long-term and sustainable activity in organizing ICT statistics in accordance with international standards.

More detailed information about the event can be found at the link: https://www.itu.int/itu-d/meetings/wtis24/.