Funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) is set to continue support for gross domestic product (GDP) data collection and statistical analysis for U.S. territories.
In a recent release, the Department of Interior said the $1,846,121 announced in funding will come through the Technical Assistance Program for the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
“The lack of parity in data collection continues to be an issue for the U.S. Territories as their governments strive to make the most informed decisions for their residents,” Deputy Assistant Secretary Keone Nakoa said in the release.
The new funds are set to facilitate statistical data planning and improvements in Guam and American Samoa, the release states.
“To help address this systemic problem, these critical funds will support these communities as they work to develop more comprehensive data practices and capacity for analysis,” Nakoa added.
This comes as the OIA announced the opening of applications for fiscal year 2022 funding under the Maintenance Assistance Program (MAP) for insular areas including the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as the freely associated states – the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau.
“The Maintenance Assistance Program is meant to encourage and support the development, improvement and institutionalization of maintenance practices in the Insular Areas,” Deputy Assistant Secretary Keone Nakoa said in a Dec. 9 release. “We are especially interested in activities that will support maintenance training to extend the life of island infrastructure, ensure the safety of maintenance technicians and/or increase the capacity of infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events.”
According to the release, the OIA's Technical Assistance Program funded a variety of projects in 2021.
These include $300,000 to the American Samoa Department of Commerce to assist in planning a Statistical Enhancement Framework, $759,902 for the development of a Guam 2050 Sustainability plan and $786,219 for an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to produce and publish annual economic statistics.
GDP for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands can be found online at the BEA website.
