The Department of Information and Communications Technology - Field Operations Office Mindanao Cluster 2 will launch the 31^st National Statistics Month celebration (NSM) in Region X on 12 October 2020 at 10AM via Google Meet and will be streamed live via DICTregion10 Facebook page and psarssox Facebook page. The 31^st NSM has a theme “Bridging Digital Gaps: Making Information Available to All”. The Philippine Statistical System (PSS) highlights the importance of digitalization in the collection, production and dissemination of quality statistics for a better and immediate decision-making but also recognizes the need in addressing social inequality in terms of access and use of ICT.

Due to the COVID19 pandemic, the region explores alternative ways in conducting NSM activities in compliance with the health and safety measures. All NSM activities are in virtual mode. Several regional activities are lined-up for the whole month of October as follows:

• Infographics Making Contest

• Statistics Page Contest

• Statistics Training for the Regional Statistics Committee

• Information Dissemination of survey results through virtual forum and release of statistical publications

The 31^st NSM Closing Ceremony will be held on 29 October 2020 to be hosted by Philippine Statistics Authority - Region X. The month-long celebration will be culminated with the dissemination of results of the 2017 Survey of Information and Communications Technology and with the conduct of the Inter-Agency Virtual Statistics Quiz Show.

PSA X enjoins the public to support the NSM celebration. Happy 31^st NSM!