To promote knowledge exchange and cooperation between the statistical offices on the islands and the Dutch CBS:  that was the purpose of the first CBS Caribbean Conference on February 13^th and 14^th on Bonaire. The directors and a number of researchers from the statistical offices of the former Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands attended this conference.

During the conference the Dutch Caribbean Statistical System (DCSS) was launched. The DCSS is a collaboration agreement between the statistical offices on the Islands and the Dutch CBS. The purpose of this agreement is that the parties will support each other to optimize their statistical systems. The first chairman of the DCSS is CBS Curacao, but the chairmanship rotates annually.

It was the first time since 10.10.10 that the directors of the statistical offices of the former Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands came together. During the conference, the statistical offices shared their knowledge about, amongst others data sources, processing data and producing statistics on specific topics such as poverty and unemployment.

General director Tjark Tjin-A Tsoi of Central Bureau of Statistics: “I look back on a successful and fruitful meeting and hope that the CBS Caribbean Conference will increase the bond between CBS in the Netherlands and the islands on the statistics field”.