The National Bureau of Statistics has increased its capacity to collect and generate statistics according to the international standards with the support of the European Union

The activities result of the Project "Technical Assistance to the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova" (ParStat) were presented at the final conference of the project, held today, July 5, in Chisinau. The project managed to strengthen institutional cooperation between the National Statistics Office of the Republic of Moldova (NBS) and a number of European national institutions responsible for statistics, and contributed significantly to the process of modernizing the National Statistical System of the Republic of Moldova in accordance with the European and international standards.

The project was implemented during the period of 2019-2022 with the financial support of the European Union and had as general objective the alignment of statistics produced by NBS to the European norms and standards, by strengthening the role of NBS as the coordinator of the National Statistical System, strengthening the capacities and technical skills of NBS specialists and continued progress in the process of harmonizing statistical methodologies and tools at EU level.

The event, jointly organized by ParStat and NBS, was attended by the Ambassador of the EU Delegation to Chisinau, Jānis Mažeiks; Deputy Secretary General of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, Svetlana Turcanu; the Ambassador of Poland to Chisinau, Tomasz Kobzdej; Deputy Head of Mission of the Italian Republic Embassy to Chisinau, Diego Randazzo; President of the Central Statistical Office of Poland, Dominik Rozkrut; Vice President of the Italian Geographical Society, Margherita Azzari; Head of the International Affairs Department at the National Institute of Statistics of Italy (Istat), Marina Gandolfo; representatives of: national central public authorities, development partners, civil society, scientific researchers, other users of statistical data.

During the opening session of the event, Oleg Cara, Director General of the NBS has stated: "The recent historic event, Republic of Moldova was granted with the status of candidate country for EU membership, implies new opportunities for the development and prosperity of society, but also increasing commitments to implement necessary reforms to ensure the European path of our country and building Europe at home. Accordingly, this envisages for the National Statistical System major tasks for the further harmonization of national statistics with the European standards and good practices, essential transformations in the process of production and dissemination of official statistics, as well as communication with upstream partners and, in particular, downstream of the information flow. We note that the EU-funded ParStat project has contributed significantly to the launch of modernization processes for official statistics in line with European good practice”.

"In the European Union, the correct collection and analysis of statistical data, followed by the generation of high-quality data, is an important process underlying policy making and informed decision-making. For the same reasons, the EU provided support to the National Bureau of Statistics through the project, which has reached the final stage today. With the support of the European Union, the Republic of Moldova has at its disposal a more efficient statistical infrastructure, modernized and harmonized with EU standards. Citizens can also benefit from the statistics provided, either as entrepreneurs, students, researchers, journalists and in many other fields of activity" said the Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova, Jānis Mažeiks.

Present at the event, Margherita Azzari, Vice President of the Italian Geographical Society, leader of the project implementation consortium noted that "better institutional cooperation between the National Statistics Office of the Republic of Moldova and EU institutions that produce and disseminate official statistics is one of the main achievements of project. We are very happy to close this assistance, knowing that official statistics in Moldova are now better aligned with EU and international standards, and NBS colleagues have improved capabilities and abilities. We thank the NBS and the institutions of the Republic of Moldova for their commitment to the project. We are ready to continue to support our colleagues in other cooperation activities that we may have in the future”.

It should be mentioned that the project supported the development and approval of regulations on the identification and establishment of producers of official statistics in the Republic of Moldova, in accordance with good European practices. Statistical questionnaires in several domains, including the Annual Structural Survey Questionnaire and the Questionnaire on the use of Information Technologies in enterprises, have been updated in line with EU standards. The project also contributed to the development of a new framework sample for household surveys.

Computer applications have also been developed for the use of modern Computer Aided Interview (CAPI) methods and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools for collecting georeferenced data about buildings, homes and addresses. They have been tested and used on 30% of the territory of the Republic of Moldova and will serve for the preparation of the next census of population and housing.

At the same time, during the event were presented the activities carried out to improve the dissemination of statistical data and interaction with users. Thanks to EU assistance, the NBS conducted the Online User Satisfaction Survey on "Satisfaction of data users with statistical products and services provided by the NBS", being the first in a series of online surveys that the NBS plans to conduct on a regular base. Another important activity of the Project, presented at the conference, aims at the design and launch of the new version of the website of the National Bureau of Statistics, with new functionalities and tools for disseminating statistical data and communication with users and the general public.

It should also be mentioned the support for the elaboration of the new human resources policy for the NBS, with the submission of the recommendations regarding the human resources management. During the project, NBS employees had access to training in various specialized areas of official statistics.

The project "Technical Assistance to the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova" (ParStat) is part of the European Union project "Support for Public Administration Reform" (PAR) in the Republic of Moldova. The ParStat project, the beneficiary of which was the NBS, was implemented by a consortium between the Italian Geographical Society, together with the National Institutes of Statistics of Italy, Poland and Denmark.

• Agenda
• Presentations
• Statistical legal framework and coordination, Oleg Cara, NBS
• Quality Framework and advancements on Statistical Methodologies, Lilian Galer, NBS
• Geospatial information for official statistics, Pavel Țîțu, NBS
• Integrated Automated (Statistical) Information System, Vasile Bujor, NBS
• Dissemination and communication of official statistics: user surveys and NBS website, Lilia Racu, NBS
• Lessons learned, recommendations and the way forward, Elena Maleru, NBS
• Project management, lessons learnt and main recommendations, Roberto Bianchini, ParStat