Project news – March 2015

The project “Improved Regional Statistics in the Republic of Modova” mobilized an important number of short-term experts during March to assess both the production and use of regional statistics.

On one side, several statisticians from Romania, Spain and the UK worked on the identification of the regional statistics in the field of business, social, agricultural and energy statistics, comparing the current status of production of regional information with the requirements established by the European Union, especially the Eurostat’s Statistical Requirements compendium. Meetings took place with different ministries (Interior, Agriculture, Health, and ICT). The Key Expert on Regional Accounts coordinates their work, aiming at the preparation of a Catalogue of Regional Statistics.

On the other side, a number of meetings with users of regional statistics, namely the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction (MRDC) and the RDAs took place, to assess the capacity of users for accessing, interpreting and effectively using statistics. A “competency framework”, identifying the skills and knowledge that regional policy-makers require for an effective use of statistics, is being developed, as a basis for a training programme to be implemented by the project. Experts from Romania and Bulgaria, supported by local experts, carried out several missions in the country. The Key Expert on Capacity Building coordinated their missions and assessments.

A survey to users of regional statistics is being developed, to be launched in close collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, to investigate user needs, satisfaction and suggestions for improvement. This survey will also serve as baseline to measure the increase in use of regional statistics at the end of the project.

The IT infrastructure for production, dissemination and use of regional statistics was also analyzed by the Key Expert on IT, as an input to designing a road map for its improvement. Several meetings with software development team of the NBS took place to assess the possibilities to amend existing data processing systems to suit the needs of regional statistics.

In addition, RDAs of South and Centre have been visited to gather preparatory information for elaboration of terms of reference for development of software application supporting M&E system for regional development. 

More details about the project are available under the heading International cooperation / EU Project “Improved Regional Statistics in the Republic of Moldova”