Global Assessment of the Statistical System of the Republic of Belarus

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Global Assessment of the Statistical System of
the Republic of Belarus

• Irina A. Kostevich
• First Deputy Chairman National
  Statistical Committee
• of the Republic of Belarus

Management Seminar on Global Assessments Yalta,
23-25 September 2009
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Technical assistance of the European Union

• I stage 1992 1994 and 1993 1996
  Statistics 1
• Interstate priorities of the CIS
• Implemented through two regional
  subprogrammes technical assistance and training

• II stage 1996 2000 Statistics 2
• National programmes of the TACIS countries
• Solving specific tasks set by the Ministry of
  Statistics and Analysis of the Republic of Belarus

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Global assessment of the statistical system of
the Republic of Belarus 2007 goals and
objectives

• Main goal
• assessment of the statistical system of the
  Republic of Belarus and its compliance with the
  European standards, as well as identification of
  priority directions for the development of
  statistics

• Objectives
• Objective description of the institutional and
  technical capacity of the statistical system
• Assessment of the general compliance of the
  statistical system with the European standards
• Description of the current situation in different
  statistical domains as related to the compliance
  with the European standards
• Development of the draft action plan to achieve
  the European standards and the list of priority
  tasks
• Provision of national and international
  interested parties with the information on
  assessment results

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Implementation of the Global Assessment action
plan and activities

• Assessment of the statistical system of the
  Republic of Belarus and its compliance with the
  European standards
• Identification and presentation of the problem
  areas of statistics

• Study of statistical methodology, best practices
  and standards of the EU member states

Participation of Belstat representatives in the
international events, study visits to the EU
member states

• Three missions of the international expert
• Examining of the statistical system of the
  Republic of Belarus
• Draft report and preparation of an Action Plan
• Draft final report including recommendations and
  conclusions on further development of the
  national statistical system, with the priorities
  for the EU technical assistance clearly stated

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Implementation of the Global Assessment

• Assessment of the institutional infrastructure
• Legal and constitutional framework
• legislative base
• Interagency Council on Statistics
• Structure of the statistical system
• planning and management
• personnel
• finance and budget
• information technologies
• work with users
• Interaction of Belstat with government
  authorities producers and users of official data

• Review of statistical areas
• Statistical infrastructure
• classifications and business register
• surveys
• regional statistics
• data confidentiality
• Macroeconomic statistics
• national accounts
• price statistics
• external trade statistics
• financial statistics
• Statistics of enterprises and other areas of
  economic statistics
• Demographic statistics

Degree of compliance with the European and
international standards
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Obtained results
The Republic of Belarus has a comprehensive,
logically relevant and well adjusted statistical
information system that comprises all statistical
areas, which allows to provide comparable data on
most issues.
Issues to be solved

• Constitutional framework (subordination to
  Government)
• Information technologies
• Coordination of activities of other statistics
  producers
• Interaction with users
• Classifications and business register
• National accounts (regional GDP estimates)
• Agricultural statistics (sample survey of
  agricultural households)
• Demographic statistics
• Tourism statistics

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Action plan priority directions for the
development of statistics

• Legal and institutional framework
• Macroeconomic statistics
• Data dissemination
• Information systems
• Other statistical areas

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Actions undertaken

• Priority directions for the improvement of the
  national statistical system of the Republic of
  Belarus identified
• Programme of the State Statistics Development for
  2006-2010 revised and amended

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Actions undertaken legal and institutional
framework, data dissemination policy

• Since October 4, 2008 National Statistical
  Committee of the Republic of Belarus
• Open free access to official statistical data and
  metadata on the web at www.belstat.gov.by
• System of interaction with mass media developed,
  the position of press-secretary introduced
• Respondent Questionnaire and User
  Questionnaire
• Publication of the Statistics of Belarus
  periodical subscription journal

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Actions undertaken information systems and
macroeconomic statistics

• Implementation of the Integrated Information
  System of State Statistics project
• Experimental GDP estimates at regional level
• Experimental annual GDP estimates at current and
  constant 2005-2007 prices in compliance with the
  new All-State Classification of Economic
  Activities

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Global assessment of the statistical system of
the Republic of Belarus 2007 conclusions

• Global Assessment is an auditing exercise of the
  national statistical system
• Analysis of compliance of the national
  statistical system with the international
  recommendations and standards
• Implementation of the Global Assessment is a
  basis for the elaboration of the national
  strategy of state statistics development
• Setting up the periodicity for statistical system
  assessment (quinquennial) would be expedient

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Thank you for your attention!