National Bureau of Statistics // News

Public event organized by the NBS as part of the global campaign to promote
the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics

On June 2, 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) organized the public event entitled “Application of the Fundamental Principle of Official Statistics no. 9 “Use of international standards” in the Republic of Moldova”. The event was carried out in the context of the campaign to promote the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics at international level, which this year marks the 30th anniversary of its adoption by the United Nations Economic Commission (UNECE).

The event was attended by representatives of international organizations and national partner institutions of the NBS who contribute to the process of compiling official statistics in the country and their use. Discussions focused on the importance of the application by statistical institutions in each country of the internationally recommended and European Union concepts, definitions, classifications and methods that are intended for the production and dissemination of quality and internationally comparable statistics. The event took place online, being broadcast live on NBS platforms.

With a greeting message at the beginning of discussions came the Director General of the NBS, Oleg Cara, who presented the thanks to all participants for attending the event and cooperation, emphasizing that the process of implementing standards in statistical activity in the country requires intense international collaboration. "We are pleased that in this process, the NBS and other public authorities and institutions in the country, engaged in statistical activities, benefit from broad and consistent support from development partners, such as UNFPA, IMF, World Bank, UNECE and other agencies. The UN, the European Union, the governments of different countries around the world, for which we thank them very much ", remarked Oleg Cara.

Present at the event, the Resident Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Moldova, Dr. Nighina Abaszada, thanked the NBS and other national partners for addressing the significant need to implement the international standards in statistics. "UNFPA has been a loyal partner for many years in the process of improving official statistics by connecting to international standards," said Nighina Abaszada, noting that UNFPA support, in cooperation with the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC) ), granted to the NBS in order to implement the concept of population with usual residence in the estimation and territorial distribution of the population number, which is the calculation basis for multiple national statistics and support in policy development.

At the same time, Mr. Carsten Boldsen, Head of the Department of Economic Statistics, Statistics Division (UNECE), noted that compliance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics is required both nationally and internationally. "Impartial and credible official statistics are an indispensable tool in the development of society, and Principle 9 on the use of concepts, classifiers and methods promotes the consistency and efficiency of data," said Carsten Boldsen, who thanked the NBS for organizing the promoting event.

Also, the IMF's Permanent Representative to Moldova, Mr. Rodgers Chawani, congratulated the community of statisticians on the 30th anniversary of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. The official spoke about the collaboration with the NBS in order to link the national statistics in the macroeconomic field to international standards, mentioning the recent joint activity in order to disseminate the revised data in the field of national accounts. "The significant role of statistics in making the right decisions is undeniable, so collaboration will continue and the IMF will contribute to the process of developing and disseminating reliable statistical information," said Rodgers Chawani.

During the event there were several presentations in which the progress made was highlighted, but also the needs for the future, in connecting the official statistics to the international standards. The NBS, which is the central authority in the field of statistics that coordinates the statistical activity in the country, is based in its activity on international statistical concepts, classifications and methods, especially those of the EU. It should be mentioned that, Law no. 93 of 2017 on official statistics, is based on the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and the Code of Good Practice of European Statistics, being developed in accordance with the General Law on Official Statistics, taking into account the provisions of Regulation (EC) no. 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European Statistics.

The key achievements of the national social and economic statistics in the implementation of international standards were discussed during the event by the Deputy General Managers of the NBS, Aurelia Spătaru and Iurie Mocanu.

The information on the impact of social statistics on sustainable development in the context of the 2030 Global Agenda and the principle of leaving no one behind at the national and regional levels was provided by Eduard Mihalaș, Population and Development Program Analyst, UNFPA Moldova. Eugeniu Aftene, Director of the Reporting and Statistics Department, National Bank of Moldova spoke about the implementation of international standards in statistics produced by the NBM (presentations are attached to the press release).

As remark, since the beginning of this year, UNECE has been carrying out the international promotion campaign of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. In this regard, several national statistical offices, including the NBS, responded to UNECE's invitation to participate in this campaign, carrying out activities on each principle consecutively. Since the beginning of the anniversary, statistical offices in countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Finland, Latvia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Colombia, Spain and Armenia have organized various events and developed materials that have highlighted the principles 1-8 and the importance of their application in statistics.

The 9th Principle, which describes the need to use international standards in the elaboration and dissemination of statistics, was marked by our country through the NBS, between May 23 and June 2. During this period, the NBS launched a series of informative and promotional materials to help the local public to better understand these principles. These materials prepared by the NBS, as well as by other statistical offices in other countries participating in the campaign, will be placed on the official website of the institution and UNECE dedicated to this international campaign and presented at the Conference of European Statisticians (ETUC), of which Republic of Moldova is also a member, which will take place in Geneva between June 20-22, 2022.

See more information about the campaign: https://unece.org/FPOS30.