In response to Abu-Dhabi Declaration (3 February 2001), the Arab Ministers put forward a strategy to achieve sustainable development in the region. In this context, Environment and Energy Conference was convened in Abu-Dhabi between 2 & 5 February 2003.

Mr. Hosny Khordagui, team leader of Sustainable Management of the Environment Group, presented a paper on the Compliance with Energy Related Environmental Standards in the Arab Region.

The Workshop on International Economic and Social Classifications was held in the UN-House in Beirut. This workshop is the fruit of the collaboration between ESCWA and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD, New York) within the framework of the project on Strengthening Statistical Capacity in ESCWA Region.

Experts from UNSD, International Labour Organization (ILO), Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO) and ESCWA presented their experiences and directed discussion with 31 trainees from 12 ESCWA member countries. The main issues tackled by the workshop were: general overview of the International Family of Classifications, the challenges of adopting the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC Rev.4), the experience of organizations dealing with classification of economic activities and industrial data, and a review of the latest draft of the Central Product Classification (CPC). Furthermore, 8 ESCWA member countries (Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen) shared their experience in the field of managing industrial data. Participants were invited to visit Lebanese Central Statistics Directorate and witness the tasks handled routinely by this office.

The main recommendations or the workshop are the following: governments will review the first draft of ISIC Rev.4 and send their comments to UNSD to finalize it, UNSD will, on the other hand, try to avoid significant changes to the structure of ISIC Rev.3 in order to reduce extra cost carried by governments while shifting to the new revision; international organizations will allocate more resources to translate important documents to Arabic; and ESCWA will coordinate between member countries and international/regional organizations to provide training on ISIC and CPC.