Albert is new NSCB chief

MANILA, Philippines – The lead government agency that sets statistical standards and policies has a new chief.

Jose Ramon Albert is the new National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Secretary General. 

The senior senior research fellow of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) replaced Romulo A. Virola who retired from his post in July 31 after more than 20 years of service. 

Albert, who has a doctoral degree holder in statistics from the State University of New York, has assumed office as the new NSCB Secretary General on September 24. 

The President appointed him on September 13, while Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director General Arsenio M. Balisacan was the one who signed his assumption of duty.

“Colleagues in the Philippine Statistical System (PSS) and the management and staff of the NSCB warmly welcomed the assumption of duty of the new NSCB Secretary General,” the NSCB said in a statement.

Albert graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics as a Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Scholar at the De La Salle University in Manila in 1985.

He was also an Awardee for Excellence in Mathematics. He took his Master of Science in Statistics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989 where he also earned his doctoral degree in Statistics in 1993.

Prior to his NSCB post, Albert was a consultant for development agencies such as the United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (UNSIAP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the Department for International Development.

He also served as Consultant of various government agencies of Malaysia’s Economic Planning Unit, Lao’s Department of Statistics, the Qatar General Secretariat for Development Planning, the Malawi Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, and Ethiopia’s Central Statistics Agency, among others. – Rappler.com