EUROPEAN COMMISSIONEUROSTAT

Directorate A: Cooperation in the European Statistical System; International cooperation; ResourcesUnit A-3: Statistical cooperation

Doc. MGSC/2018/15

Twentieth meeting of theManagement Group on Statistical Cooperation

12 - 13 April 2018

Luxembourg, Bech BuildingRoom QUETELET

Start: 9:30 am

Recent developments in NSIs and in international cooperation (roundtable contributions)

Point 6 of the Agenda

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AUSTRIA

In 2017, we have implemented several partially funded technical assistance activities (as traineeships or workshops/ missions to the beneficiaries), which were conducted in the framework of larger projects (IPA, UNWTO/ICHTO, UNDA, ENP East, TAIEX):

•             1 IPA trainee from Albania on EU-SILC (4.9.-15.12.2017)

•             Involvement of Statistics Austria experts in consultation activities/workshops on-site:

UNWTO/ICHTO workshop on Tourism Satellite Accounts in Iran:

In the framework of the bilateral road map on economic cooperation between Austria and the Islamic Republic of Iran, a statistical mission has been agreed to get a first insight about Iran’s statistical system and the “Tourism Satellite Account” (TSA). The 1 ½ day-Workshop was supported by the Statistics and Tourism Satellite Account Programme of UNWTO and delivered in line with the Statistics' Capacity Building Programme (SCBP). The objective of the Workshop was to evaluate the current state of the System of Tourism Statistics (STS) in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Furthermore, it reflected which further improvements still need to be implemented to conform to the International Recommendations on Tourism Statistics 2008 (IRTS 2008), considering additionally TSA implementation.

5th Panel on Statistics on innovation and R&D in Georgia (Eastern Partnership)

Training to the national officials and experts responsible for sustainable energy data collection in Georgia:

The event was jointly organized by UNECE and ESCAP as an activity in the framework of implementation of the joint United Nations Development Account project “Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia”

TAIEX Multicountry workshop on Energy Balances Compilation Software in Austria

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BOSNIA & HERCEGOVINA

- ESA 2010 implemented in annual and quarterly estimates of Gross Domestic Product by production and expenditure approach. Data are available at current

prices, previous year's prices and chain-linked values in 2010 as a reference year. New series of data submitted to Eurostat;

- In line with ESA 2010 methodology, new series of data on gross fixed capital formation of legal entities in BiH revised and published for the period 2007 – 2016;

- Prepared answers to the Chapter 18 – Statistics, EC Questionnaire for BiH and all requested data for the other chapters;

- The series of monthly turnover Index in industry for BiH for the period January 2010 – December 2017 published for the first time. The data are submitted to Eurostat;

- Quarterly Other services turnover indices for the level of BiH, for the period 1st quarter 2010 – 3rd quarter 2017 have been regularly published as of 2017;

- In 2017 VAT database from Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH available to the Agency for Statistics of BiH and regularly used for production of various statistics;

- Conducted Second pilot Income and Living Conditions Survey (SILC). Data sent to Eurostat together with the Quality report;

- For the first time Adult Education Survey implemented and Micro data together with the Quality report sent to Eurostat;

- The implementation of the new IPA 2015 Twinning project started.

- For the first time published, data on Environmental Protection Expenditure for Bosnia and Herzegovina, based on EU Regulation No. 691/2011,

- Regular reporting to Eurostat on short term indictors of energy statistics for electricity and coal began.

- Revised and published Statistical energy balance of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the period 2014 -2016

- For the first time published data on the research Air traffic emission 2015 for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Level 3a IPCC methodological approach was used.

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BULGARIA

The BNSI actively participated in the work of the European Statistical System and successfully pursues a policy of development of regional and bilateral cooperation.Among the priority tasks on the development of European partnerships and international cooperation are the active involvement of the BNSI in the preparation and adoption of new European legislation in the field of statistics, exchange of best practices and experiences with other statistical offices.

Final conference devoted to successful completion of the second Twinning project with the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Title: AZ/14/ENP/ST/32 “Support to the State Statistical Committee in harmonisation of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with European standards” Leading partner: Federal Statistical Office of Germany - DESTATISJunior partner: National Statistical Institute of BulgariaOther partners: National Statistical Offices of the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Denmark, Latvia and Croatia Overall objective of the project - Improvement of quality, availability and compliance of official statistics of the Republic of Azerbaijan with European standards in key domains conducive to effective and efficient policy makingDuration of the project - 25 months (from October 23, 2015 to November 27, 2017)Total value - EUR 1 178 763Number of project components – 5Number of expert missions on all project components – 37Number of management project activities – 8Number of study visits in the EU countries - 14Number of study visits hosted – 6Statistical domains of study visits concerned - Statistics on income and living conditions; Tourism statistics; Statistics on disabled persons; Quality management.Number of participants from the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan – 64Number of short-term experts from EU Member states involved in the project - 35

Organized study visit to experts from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics Implementation: In the framework of IPA 2014 Multi-Beneficiary Statistical Co-operation Programme Main objective of the course - acquaintance with the Bulgarian experience in the field of e-census Duration of the course: 1 day (on May 29, 2017)

Venue: NSI’s Head Office, Sofia

Organized study visit of 2 experts from the State Statistical Office of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Implementation: In the framework of IPA 2014 Multi-Beneficiary Statistical Co-operation Programme Main objective of the course - acquaintance with the Bulgarian experience in the field of quality management within the NSIDuration of the course: 3 days (from November 15 to November 17, 2017)Venue: NSI’s Head Office, Sofia

Organized study visit of 3 experts from the State Statistical Office of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Implementation: In the framework of IPA 2015 Multi-Beneficiary Statistical Co-operation Programme

Main objective of the course - acquaintance with the Bulgarian experience in the field of statistics on tourismDuration of the course: 2 days (from February 27 to February 28, 2018) Venue: NSI’s Head Office, Sofia

Organized first expert mission to the State Statistical Office of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Implementation: In the framework of IPA 2015 Multi-Beneficiary Statistical Co-operation ProgrammeMain objective of the course – provision of technical assistance, methodological support and recommendations in order to improve the quality and comparability of the national tourism survey of MacedoniaDuration of the course: 2 days (from January 30 to February 1, 2018)Venue: State Statistical Office, Skopje, Macedonia

Organized training course of 24 junior experts from 6 countries – Republic of

Armenia, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Republic of Ukraine

Title: “Introduction to theory and organisation of statistical surveys”Implementation: In the framework of the Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria “Building of Administrative capacity and democratic institutions”Main objective of the course - acquaintance with the main concepts of statistical theory as well as the organisation of some statistical surveys in accordance with EUstandards in the field of statisticsDuration of the course: 8 days (from September 24 to October 6, 2017)Venue: Training and Qualification Centre in the village of Slivek, Lovech District and Training Centre of the University of National and World Economy in the village of Ravda, Bourgas District

International conference devoted to the results of first grant agreement (SGA-I) on ESSnet Big Data project and presentation of forthcoming second Grant agreement (SGA-II)

Organizers: Bulgarian National Statistical Institute and Statistics BelgiumParticipants: 22 European participating countries, Acting Director-General of Eurostat, Director General of Statistics Netherlands (Project leader) and BNSI President, interested experts, other representatives of Eurostat, the European Commission, international organisations, the scientific community, and businesses in BulgariaMain objective of the conference: acquaintance with the results of the different work packages included in the current first grant agreement (SGA-I) of the ESSnet Big Data project and discussion on the use of Big Data in the statistical practice, their influence on official statistics and the future of the European Statistical System

Duration: 2 days (from February 23 to February 24, 2017)Venue: Sofia, Bulgaria

Participation in projects within transnational programs:

o Project “Improving institutional capacities and fostering cooperation to tackle the impacts of transnational youth migration (YOUMIG)”Leading partner: Hungarian Central Statistical OfficeOther partners: Local government bodies, research institutes, universities and Statistical Offices of 8 countries (Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia)Overall objective of the project – to foster development at a local government level and make municipalities capable of tackling the challenges posed by youth migration through boosting migration data accuracy and knowledge exchanges on a transnational basisDuration of the project – 30 months (from January 1, 2017)Implementation: In the framework of the Danube Transnational Programme (Interreg - Danube Transnational Programme - ERDF)

o Project SME Innovation Capacity Boost (SMEInnoBoost)Leading partner: National Association of Small and Medium Business in BulgariaPartners: Statistical Offices of Bulgaria, Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, National Association of Small and Medium Businesses, the Science and Technology Park of Crete at the Foundation for Research and Technology - Greece, Institute of Information and Communication Technologies at BAS, Foundation for small and medium-sized enterprises - Skopje, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Regional Development Agency of the Korce, AlbaniaMonitoring partners: Software Engineering and Internet Technologies Laboratory at the University of Cyprus and Innovation and Technological Development Fund of the former Yugoslav Republic of MacedoniaOverall objective of the project - to enhance the innovation potential of small and medium-sized enterprises in the regionDuration of the project - 24 months (from August 1, 2017)Implementation: In the framework of the transnational program ‘Balkans - Mediterranean 2014 – 2020’ (Interreg - Balkan-Mediterranean 2014 - 2020)

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CHEZH REPUBLIC

1. EU Twinning Project “Support to the State Statistical Committee in Modernisation of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with European standards” (Twinning Contract No: AZ/14/ENP/ST/32)

Beneficiary: State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan

The Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) participated in the project together with Destatis (consortium leader), NSI of the Republic of Bulgaria and Statistics Netherlands. The CZSO contributed with nine missions of short-term experts (five missions in 2016 and four in 2017) that were focused on Tourism statistics. The overall objective of the CZSO participation was to harmonize Azerbaijani Tourism statistics in accordance with international standards.

2. Study Visit on Government Finance Statistics (GFS) in the framework of the IPA 2014 Multi-beneficiary Statistical Co-operation Programme

Beneficiary: State Statistical Office of the Republic of Macedonia (SSO)

The study visit took place in the CZSO from 6 to 7 February 2017. The overall objective of the visit was to support the SSO colleagues and further develop the compilation of GFS data according to the EU standards and harmonise the statistical methodologies related to ESA tables.

3. Study visit on National Accounts in the frame of the project “Strengthening the Serbian statistical system by upgrading methodologies and standards and by appliance of good practice – re-launch”

Beneficiary: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

The CZSO hosted the study visit on National Accounts from 21 to 23 February 2017. The main objective of the visit was to bring the system of the Serbian National Accounts in line with EU methodologies and requirements. The consultations were focused mainly on the overall assessment of the Supply and Use Tables and input-output system and its position in the system of National Accounts.

4. Study visit on EU-SILC in the framework of the IPA 2014 Multi-beneficiary Statistical Cooperation Programme.

Beneficiaries: INSTAT (Albania), BHAS (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and KAS (Kosovo)

In March the CZSO hosted a 3 day study visit with the aim of training the employees of Western Balkans NSIs in the field of European Statistics in Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey. The scope of the visit was to provide further technical assistance to INSTAT, BHAS and KAS and give the participants the opportunity through which they can

learn best practices from a country which is currently running EU-SILC successfully, in line with European standards. It also served for the participants as a practical experience where they could use their technical knowledge that they have acquired so far from other projects of technical assistance.

5. Study visit on the completion of SNA1993 and the possible implementation of SNA2008 in the framework of the World Bank Twinning partnership “National Strategy for Development of Statistics Project in Tajikistan”

Beneficiary: Agency on Statistics under the president of the Republic of Tajikistan (AS)The study visit of AS experts took place in the CZSO from 17 to 18 August 2017. The main objective of the visit was to study the experience of the CZSO in the field of the completion of the SNA 1993 and possible implementation of the SNA 2008.

6. TAIEX Expert Mission on Establishment of the Farm Register in Armenia

Beneficiary: National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia (NSSRA)The CZSO provided two experts for a 3 day mission in Yerevan (27 – 29 September 2017). The aim of the expert mission was to support the NSSRA in improving and further development of Armenian Farm Register to evolve into a useful tool for the management of the complex system of agricultural statistics in compliance with EU standards. The CZSO experts evaluated and recommended approaches based on their best practice for possible application in Armenia.

7. Study visit on National Accounts in the frame of the World Bank Twinning Arrangement “Implementation of the National strategy for development of statistics of the Kyrgyz Republic”

Beneficiary: National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic (NSC)

The CZSO hosted the study visit on National Accounts by NSC experts from 11 to 14 December 2017. The main objective of the visit was to provide expert consultations for the Kyrgyz experts in the area of compilation of supply and use tables, calculations of expenditures for research and development and compilation of financial account. Another follow-up visit of the Kyrgyz experts is planned for 2018.

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ESTONIA

Due to limited human resources it is hard for Statistics Estonia to partake in big technical aid tenders. Still on numerous cases during last years we have been subcontracted to host study visits. In 2017 we welcomed two different delegations.

From 2.-3.03.2013 several statisticians from Belarus Statistical Agency (Belstat) visited Statistics Estonia in order to learn about electronic possibilities to conduct Population and Housing Census. The study visit was organised by the Estonian Center of Eastern Partnership.

Just a couple of days later, 8.-10.03.2017 we hosted a joint study visit for statisticians from Albania and Kosovo on tourism statistics. This was part of implementing the IPA 2014 Multi-beneficiary Statistical Cooperation Programme, coordinated by GOPA Consultants.

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FINLAND

In 2017 Statistics Finland was actively involved in several technical cooperation projects. It was one of the consortium members in EU Twinning project in Armenia that ended mid-2017 (project led by Statistics Denmark). The Finnish expertise focused on poverty statistics and innovation statistics. Statistics Finland is also a consortium member in EU Twinning project in Bosnia and Herzegovina (project led by Statistics Denmark) which started in the beginning of 2018. It will provide expertise in the areas of business statistics, business register, balance of payment and international investment positions. Statistics Finland’s experts have cooperated under the TAIEX programme in Turkish Cypriot community as well.

In 2017 Statistics Finland took part in three World Bank Twinning projects on strengthening statistical expertise in Russia (project led by Statistics Denmark), in Mongolia (project led by Destatis) and in Kyrgyzstan (project led by Destatis). In these projects Statistics Finland provided expertise on environmental accounting, implementation of the General Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM), culture statistics and price statistics.

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THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

SSO adopted the new Programme of Statistical Surveys for the period 2018-2022. The adoption process was preceded by a series of consultations and workshops with ONAs, NGOs, media etc.

In January 2018, the State Statistical Office changed the method of collecting data on wages (paper questionnaires with data collected from business entities) and switched to using data from an administrative source - the Public Revenue Office. The change was made in order to reduce the burden on reporting units and improve the quality of the data.

In July, UNICEF and the State Statistical Office signed an agreement to participate in conducting the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), which will provide data for evaluation and monitoring of the progress of children in the area of health and nutrition, child protection and education.

The Conference on Statistical Confidentiality, organized by UNECE and Eurostat, was held in the period 20-22.09.2017 in Skopje. Representatives of 27 countries from all continents in the world, as well as representatives of UNECE and EU attended the Conference. The participants had the possibility to present and exchange views and experiences in several topics from the area of protection of statistical data confidentiality, but also to discuss about the directions in which this area will develop in the future.

In 2017, the following national standards were further aligned with the standards in the ESS:

Nomenclature of agricultural products, forestry, hunting and fishing and related services, 2015

National Nomenclature of Industrial Products, 2015

Classification of individual consumption according to purpose, 2010

Statistical classification of waste, Ver.4, 2010

Classification of Statistical Activities

Classification in the field of science and technology

Nomenclature for the Analysis and Comparison of Scientific Programmes and Budgets

The MakStat app for mobile devices, which contains information on the most important socio-economic indicators in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia produced by the State Statistical Office and the National Bank, is available for Android and iOS and links are also available on SSO’s web site in Macedonian and English language (http://www.stat.gov.mk/Aktivnosti_en.aspx?rbra=223.)

According to the NGO Open Data Watch, which deals with research and analysis of the connection of open data and official statistics, the Macedonian statistical system is ranked 30th out of 173 countries.

A report from the User Satisfaction Survey 2017 was published. This was SSO’s fourth USS.

Within the IPA 2012 National programme, implementation is underway of the twinning project "Support to the State Statistical Office for capacity building and improving compliance of statistics with EU standards”. The implementation period is October 2016 - February 2018. An extension of the Project duration in order to enable successful achievement of the mandatory results is requested.

Tendering procedure for the IPA 2013 funded project for redesign of the warehouse for national accounts is in the final phase. Signing of the agreement is expected at the end of October. The implementation should begin in late 2017 and will last for 22 months.

As part of the IPA 2013 funded procurement project, 72 personal computers with Windows 10 Pro operating system were purchased, whose deployment is in progress and will be completed by mid-October.

Also, SSO is in the programming phase for National Programme IPA 2017, and is part of the Sector Planning Documents for Public Administration Reform and the Public Finance Management.

The implementation of the IPA 2015 Multi-beneficiary programme for statistical cooperation started on 01.07.2017 and will last until 31.10. 2019. 14 Pilot Projects are planned with the Grant Contract and 11 pilot projects through Service Contracts.

The Regional project - SME innovation capacity boost, which started on 1 August 2017 and will last 24 months or until 31 July 2019, is part of the INTERREG Transnational Programme "Balkan-Mediterranean 2014-2020". It is a regional project involving statistical institutes and non-governmental organisations from the countries of the region: the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece and Cyprus. Within this project, the State Statistical Office aims to conduct a survey on innovation, and the obtained statistics will be used for the needs of the project.

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FRANCE

2017 has been a quite active year for INSEE cooperation: 158 actions have been carried on for a total amount of 840 days of expertise

We went on with the twinning programme with Statistique Tunisie as project leader with Istat as junior partner. The driving element of this twinning is the modernisation of the Institute with 5 components: the statistical law and the quality, the reorganisation of the Institute, national accounts, regional organisation of statistics, and dissemination and communication. This programme, which will finish at the end of April, is considered as successful as several objectives have been achieved.

We took part in three consortia which implemented programmes launched and funded by the European Commission: the Panafrican statistics programme, the Medstat IV programme and a service contract to the advantage of SORS, the Serbian NSI, which closing conference took place end 2017.

We also provided short-term technical support in various twinning programmes, especially one with Statistics Denmark for the benefits of the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics and one with the Algerian Ministry of Industry on innovation statistics. We overall dedicated about 400 days of expertise to all these activities funded by European or international programmes.

The bilateral cooperation went on with our traditional partners: Maghreb countries (Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria), Sub-Saharan African countries through Afristat, and in Europe, mainly

Serbia and Ukraine. We also started to cooperate with the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics.

We provided technical assistance in various domains of statistics, with a specific emphasis on economic statistics and national accounts. We developed our assistance in domains of interest such as quality in statistics, NSIs governance, capacity building and SDGs indicators.

We went on developing our action toward a larger audience and organised or took part to several international seminars, workshops or conferences. We organised our annual seminar in Libourne (France) where experts from both Sub-Saharan African and Maghreb countries were invited. In 2017, this seminar was dedicated to business registers and economic classifications. In 2018, the theme will be agricultural statistics. This seminar is expected to focus on supporting countries’ capacity to contribute to the data requirements of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the area of agricultural and rural statistics.

INSEE also took an active part in other international events: we organised sessions in a seminar on national accounts organized by Afristat and the African Development Bank and co-organised a second seminar on SDG 16 (Governance, Peace and Security) with IRD-DIAL research centre and the African Union Commission (Abidjan, CÔTE d’IVOIRE) in the side of the Africa-EU Summit.

INSEE was represented at the ISI Marrakech conference with a delegation of 11 people including our Director General. We organised 2 sessions, presented papers in several others and co-hosted a stand together with Expertise France, our operator for international cooperation.

We also ran an editorial activity with the publication of two issues of our cooperation newsletter (https://www.insee.fr/en/information/2404021) and the co-edition of an issue of the review “Stateco” (https://www.insee.fr/fr/information/2116798) which, by the way, encourages our partners to publish papers. In 2017, the last issue reviewed national accounting in West Africa, notably describing the contribution of Eretes, the tool for assisting in drawing up national accounts that has been adopted by many countries in the region. We contributed to an INSEE leaflet on SDGs indicators, which is available both in French (https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/2654964, then click on the word “dépliant”) and English (https://www.insee.fr/en/statistiques/2879089, then click on the word “leaflet”). We drew up a leaflet on ERETES, which is also available both in French (http://www.eretes.net/FR/Flyer_ERETES_FR.pdf) and English (http://www.eretes.net/EN/Flyer_ERETES_EN.pdf).

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GERMANY

EU Twinning project Azerbaijan

The implementation phase of the EU Twinning Project “Support to the State Statistical Committee in Harmonisation of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan

in line with European standards” has been completed in November 2017. The implementation period had been extended by one month in order to provide the project partners with the time needed to implement the follow-up processes and organise the official end of the project. In addition to the Federal Statistical Office, major partners in project implementation were the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria (NSI) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Additional contributions are provided by experts from the National Statistical Offices of the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia and Croatia.

The twinning project's 48 consulting activities focused on quality management, geographical information systems, Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC), statistics of people with disabilities (social statistics) and tourism statistics. The goal of co-operation was to harmonise the Azerbaijani statistical system with the standards of the European Union in the selected areas.

The project was implemented according to plan. The defined milestones and all specified 14 mandatory project results were achieved.

The results obtained were presented to a wider audience at the closing conference on 24 November 2017. The following are regarded as the main results:

- refinement of quality reporting and conduct of a DESAP self-assessment in selected statistical areas

- publication of online maps for a number of statistical indicators

- conduct of a first EU-SILC pilot survey

- refinement of the statistics of people with disabilities and handicaps

- basic revision of the questionnaires used in tourism statistics and further development of tourism satellite accounts.

Service Contract with Azerbaijan

Destatis has partnered with ICON Institute, Statistics Lithuania, NSI Bulgaria and Statistics Netherlands for the implementation of the project “EU support to the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SSC) to reach European standards”, which is a follow-up to the concluded twinning project. The joint bid has been successful and activities started in February 2018.

World Bank-financed Twinning project with the Kyrgyz Republic

In May 2017, the Federal Statistical Office started to implement a twinning project with the National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic (NSC). The KGSTAT project on the Implementation of the National Strategy for Development of Statistics of the Kyrgyz Republic is funded by the World Bank. The project goals are to improve the analytical capacity of the Kyrgyz Statistical Committee and strengthen both the committee's position in the administrative hierarchy and perception by the public until project completion in December 2018. To implement these goals, the Federal Statistical Office works in a consortium with the national statistical offices of Finland, Italy and the Netherlands.

All in all, 40 activities have been planned for the project period; mainly expert missions in Kyrgyzstan, but also several study visits hosted for Kyrgyz delegations. The project activities focus on the following four areas:

- national accounts (NA)

- amending the Statistics Act

- upgrading the IT system

- establishing a business register

The current situation was analysed during the project's inception phase in May and June 2017 at the NSC in Bishkek. During this phase, the international experts gained first insights and provided consultation in Kyrgyzstan. In August, the outcome of the inception phase was analysed and the work plan for future activities discussed during a joint meeting in Bishkek. In the same month, the first high-level meeting took place in Wiesbaden. In view of the positive results achieved during the twinning partnership and in response to a request by the NSC, it is planned to prolong the project by six months until December 2018.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda plays an important role in the project. To develop a national sustainability strategy along the lines of the Agenda, the Kyrgyz government has set up a separate committee chaired by the country's Prime Minister. In co-operation with other donors like GIZ, UN and Statistics Norway, KGSTAT project will support this initiative during the whole project period.

Co-operation with Russia

Destatis supports Statistics Denmark in the ongoing World Bank project with the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (FSSS) in the areas of use administrative data use and national accounts.

A Destatis expert visited the FSSS on demographic statistics in November 2017.

Co-operation with Mongolia

On 5 September 2017, the closing workshop of the Smart Government Project Mongolia was held in Ulan Bator. The workshop was designed to provide all institutions involved and the Mongolian public with detailed information on the project results.

The project was funded by the World Bank and implemented by the Mongolian Cabinet Secretariat. Under the Enabling Open Data subcomponent, the National Statistics Office of Mongolia (NSO) was provided with financial resources for consulting and training activities in the areas of Data Production in the Mongolian Statistical Office and Provision of Open Data.

As the NSO's contracting partner, Destatis began to implement consulting activities in the areas of business statistics, business register, quality management, Open Data, GSBPM, metadata, and culture, science and technology statistics in September 2016. In these activities, it was supported by the statistical offices of Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Italy. On the whole, four expert missions took place in Mongolia and six study visits were hosted in Germany and in the partner offices involved. Seven Mongolian

colleagues had the opportunity to attend the UNECE Conference on Dissemination in Geneva in June. In addition, two management meetings were held in Mongolia, while another management meeting took place in the framework of a study visit to Germany.

In the discussion during the closing workshop, the Mongolian participants stressed that the results achieved and recommendations given by experts were helpful for the further development of Mongolian statistics towards a modern information provider. The representative of the project-implementing unit of the Mongolian Cabinet Secretariat stated that the Smart Government Project's best and most sustainable results were achieved in the statistics component.

Bilateral co-operation with China

In 2017 the Federal Statistical Office of Germany and the Chinese Statistical Office NBS began to implement two new cooperation projects based on the latest cooperation agreement signed in November 2016. Commencement missions took place in both newly agreed sub-projects of bilateral cooperation. This concerns the subareas housing price statistics and construction statistics. In addition, the exchange in the field of employment statistics was completed.

The kick-off was a study visit by Chinese statisticians in Wiesbaden and Hanover on the subject of housing price statistics in April 2017. The corresponding expert mission of the experts of the Federal Statistical Office of Germany was in October 2017 in Beijing and Guilin.

In May 2017, the final activity between the Federal Statistical Office and the NBS in the field of employment statistics took place. Consultations in this field have been implemented since 2009. During the visit, the Chinese participants presented the updated NBS Labor Force Survey, revised with German support. The efficiency of the consultations can be seen in particular from a significant improvement in the survey quality of the Chinese data. The results served, among other things, as the basis for public statements by the incumbent Prime Minister of the PR China, Li Keqiang.

Furthermore, employees of the Federal Statistical Office travelled to China for the first time for talks on construction statistics. The first assignment in June 2017 in the new subproject was to exchange views on the respective approaches in the field of building statistics and to define the further consultations, which were deepened in October 2017 during a study visit to Germany.

In 2018 the close cooperation in the above mentioned subproject will continue with a total of 4 project activities. In 2019 a new agreement on two new subprojects will be negotiated.

In January 2018 Destatis hosted a government delegation on social security system.

Co-operation with Korea

A study visit to Destatis on statistics on justice and the Federal Criminal Police Office on Police Crime Statistics took place in June 2017. In August 2017 a Korean delegation visited

Destatis in the sphere of administrative data and big data. The next bilateral co-ordination meeting in Germany is foreseen in October 2018.

Delegation visits

Destatis furthermore hosted delegations from Cameroun, Tajikistan, Ethiopia and Norway.

Trainees

In 2017 two trainees from Bosnia and Herzegovina were taken on by the Federal Statistics Office through the Eurostat program. The trainees have received a comprehensive insight into the work of Destatis. They were employed within Destatis’ Institute for Research and Development in Official Statistics and the international cooperation unit respectively. Since January 2018 another trainee from Bosnia and Herzegovina has started his work in the area of sampling techniques.

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GREECE

The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), during the last year, took significant steps as a matter of priority to enhance the reliability of official statistics and to consolidate the confidence of users at national, European and international level to its statistics.

ELSTAT put emphasis on the following three (3) main pillars:

Improving and continuously ensuring the quality and reliability of statistics

ELSTAT took a significant number of steps in order to enhance the quality of the statistics produced.

Important actions and achievements:

ELSTAT continued the implementation of the improvement actions to comply with the recommendations of the Peer Review Report. In this framework, it compilesd and posted on its website,, a Report on the Assessment of the Response Burden of the Surveyed Statistical Units, with reference year 2016.

During the period 23/1 – 27/1/2017 an ESS expert provided expertise in ELSTAT on the certification of ELSS statistics. The expert provided, inter alia, instructions in ELSTAT regarding the compilation of a Guidance for the agencies of the Hellenic Statistical System (ELSS) on the Implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP), as provided for in Article 5a(g) of the Regulation (EC) 223/2009 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/759. One day of the expert mission was devoted

to issues pertaining to the role of the Statistical Heads of the ELSS agencies and in that day the Statistical Heads were invited to participate.

In 2017, the Good Practice Advisory Committee (GPAC) met on 30-31 May and 6-7 September. In these meetings a particular focus was put on Principle 4, Commitment to Quality, and a range of issues relating to the improvement of quality throughout the ELSS were addressed. GPAC held its final meeting in 2017 on 14/12/2017 to formally adopt its Fourth Annual Report.

Good Governance of the National Statistical Institute

Important actions and achievements

Following the completion of the self-assessment of the Divisions of ELSTAT belonging to the General Directorate of Statistical Surveys as regards the CoP implementation the self-evaluation of the Divisions of ELSTAT belonging to the General Directorate of Administration and Organization was also completed.

The new Organization Chart of ELSTAT was prepared. The new Organization of ELSTAT will be based on the above Organization Chart.

Closer cooperation with producers and users of statistical data

One of ELSTAT’s main concerns is the production of statistics adapted to the needs and requirements of users at national, European and international level, as well as the cooperation with the other ELSS agencies that collect and produce statistical data, and the coordination of their activities with a view to enhancing the quality of statistics produced in the ELSS.

Important actions and achievements

o The 1st meeting of the Coordination Committee of ELSS took place on 27/2/2018. This Committee is chaired by the President of ELSTAT and its other members are the Statistical Heads of the ELSS agencies.

o On the basis of instructions provided by the ESS expert on certification of ELSS statistics, ELSTAT proceeded: a) to the updating of the “Statement of Principles and Procedures for the Certification of ELSS statistics”, which is the basic document for the certification process followed by ELSTAT, b) to the compilation of a draft Guidance for the ELSS on the Implementation of the CoP.

o The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) participated at the  European Big Data Hackathon, (Brussels, 13-15 March 2017) on the occasion of the conference "New Techniques and Technologies for Statistics" (NTTS 2017) organized by the European Commission.

o Two meetings of the Advisory Committee of the Hellenic Statistical System (SY.EP.EL.S.S) were organized. A meeting on the presentation of the draft Annual Statistical Work Programme 2018 of ELSTAT, (6/4/2017), and a second meeting on support pertaining to the communication to the public of the upcoming 2021 General Censuses for Buildings and Population-Housing, (2/10/2017).

o ELSTAT organised the “Big Data ESSNet WP1” – on the outcome of the deliverables of the WP1 (Thessaloniki, 21-22 Sept 2017).

o ELSTAT organised the “8th Annual User Conference” focusing on Demography and Migration Statistics (Athens, 20 Oct 2017).

o ELSTAT organised the “Labour Market Statistics – Task Force 1 – LFS Implementing Measure: Input harmonization” on the outcome of the deliverables of the TF1 (Athens, 24-25 Apr 2017).

o ELSTAT co-organised the UNICEF-TransMonEE Conference “Network Meeting of National Statistical Offices: Data on Refugee and Migrant Children and Children from Ethnic Minorities” (Athens, 24-25 Oct 2017).

o ELSTAT organised an in-house training of ELSTAT personnel on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Athens, 07 Dec 2017).

o One-day Conference on the presentation of the “Atlas of the Greek Islands” (Athens, 16 Feb 2017).

o ELSTAT organised the Press Conference: "National Accounts – GDP compilation method" (Athens, 17 Oct 2017) targeting on journalists and the development of their statistical literacy.

o ELSTAT organised the Press Conference: "Fiscal data – legal framework" (Athens, 21 Apr 2017) targeting on journalists and the development of their statistical literacy.

o The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) participates at the WP 2 and 4 of the ESS VIP DIGICOM project. ELSTAT, in the framework of the project “Fostering statistical literacy in Greece” organizes, for the first time, the “Statistics Competition” in Greece. This project was elaborated in the frame of the ESS.VIP: Digital Communication, User Analytics and Innovative Products (DIGICOM), one of the eight projects of the ESS Vision 2020.

o ELSTAT has also participated at the 82nd Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF).

o A Memorandum of Cooperation signed between ELSTAT and the University of Aegean, on the provision of statistical information for the compilation of the “Atlas of the Greek Islands”.

o A Memorandum of Cooperation signed between ELSTAT and the Labour Inspectorate Body, for the compilation of statistics on accidents at work.

o A Memorandum of Cooperation signed between ELSTAT and the University of Peloponnisos, on the exploitation of data with an emphasis on health data and the conduct of specific targeted health surveys.

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ITALY

Istat is actively involved in several technical cooperation projects, either as a member of international consortia or as the implementing body of initiatives funded by the Italian Government, through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation.

At EU level, currently active projects are:

o The twinning project in FYROM “Support to the State Statistical Office (SSO) for capacity building and improving compliance of statistics with EU standards” implemented with the State Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS) as Junior Partner. Istat, SURS and SSO are working together in the fields of National Accounts, Business Statistics, Research and Development Statistics, Labour market statistics and Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Additional contributions are provided by experts from Statistics Netherlands and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria. The project will end in June 2018, after a 4 months extension.

o The twinning project in Tunisia ‘Mondernisation de l’appareil statistique tunisien’, led by INSEE, and where Istat is Junior Partner with the participation of Statistics Lithuania will come to an end in April 2018, after a 3-month extension. Istat participation focused in particular on the revision of the legal statistical framework, on the redesign of the IT infrastructure of the Tunisian institute, and on the improvement and development of INS communication and dissemination strategies and policies, including the relations with other producers and users, frameworks for data access, data transmission and exchange standards.

Istat is also participating in the MedStat IV programme, providing short-term expertise and training in particular on labour market statistics, business registers and quality management within the consortium led by Expertise France and composed of EU NSIs. Istat is also partner of the consortium implementing the Panafrican programme, led by Expertise France where most of the partners are EU NSI .

By January 2018, the implementation phase of the following EU funded projects was completed:

o Twinning project in Turkey “Capacity Building Concerning Presentation and Usage of the General Government Financial Statistics” between the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy (MEF) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Turkey (DGPA). Istat supported MEF for the achievement of the following mandatory results: i) development of an early warning and decisional support system, based on the identification and calculation of performance indicators; ii) implementation of data mining methods; iii) harmonization of data dissemination practices to European standards.

o In Serbia Istat participated in the project “Strengthening the Serbian Statistical Systsem by Upgrading Methodologies and Standards and by the appliance of Good Practice”, let by GOPA Consulting (Germany) with Statistics Netherlands, Expertise France, S.C. Eurolinks Consultants S.R.L. and Atos It Solution and Service. The

contribution of Istat was mainly focused on the development of the metadata system and on SDMX.

o In Montenegro, together with GOPA Consulting (leader), and the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS), Istat provided technical assistance in the project “Enhanced statistical capacity and provision of economic and social statistics”. Istat contribution was focused on non-observed economy, labour force survey (LFS), capi-cati and administrative sources. Istat’s experts also implemented training courses on Seasonal Adjustement.

Istat also provides short-term experts for projects promoted by other donors:

- The World Bank funded project ‘Strengthening statistical expertise in the Russian Federation’ led by Statistics Denmark with Destatis, INSEE; Statistics Finland and Statistics Netherlands. Istat in particular in contributing to quality management, innovation in statistical processes, and environmental accounting.

- The World Bank World Bank Twinning Arrangement “Implementation of the National strategy for development of statistics of the Kyrgyz Republic”, led by Destatis with Statistics Finland and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Istat is contributing to the project providing technical assistance and hosting study visits within the components ICT, Human Resources and Business Statistics.

At bilateral level, with the financing of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, Istat is supporting the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) in the preparation of the 2018 Population and Housing Census. Technical assistance is currently focused on the implementation of the 3rd Census Pilot and on the development of the tools for monitoring census progress (Dashboard).

Istat has recently started cooperation with the Central Administration for Statistics of Lebanon in the framework of a bilateral funding from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. The project centres on support in the upgrade of methodologies for household and social statistics, on its institutional strengthening and reinforcement of CAS administrative capacity, on the development of IT sector with focus on GIS and SDMX standards.

In addition, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation is funding a project in the Caribbean aimed to support the Caricom countries mainly in the field of Agriculture, Environment and Gender Statistics. The phase of assessment should start in the first half of 2018.

With the financial support of the Italian Government, Istat is also in the planning phase of two projects with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Projects work will cover the following areas:

Monitoring of SDGs Indicators

Development of Statistical Business Registers

A further project with the National Bureau of Statistics of Tanzania, funded by the Italian Government, is expected to start in the second half of 2018: sectors of intervention will be

the support to economic statistics, agriculture statistics, improvement of vital statistics, SDGs indicators monitoring and reporting, support to communication and dissemination policies.

In 2017, Istat also hosted 16 study visits, both within the mentioned projects, within MB IPA programmes and upon specific request. Requested topics and themes ranged from thematic statistical sectors, to institutional framework and organisation, to our experience in modernisation of the production and organisation of official statistics, to transversal issues such as methodology, quality, relations with users and other producers, management and development of human resources.

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KOSOVO1

Main goal:

Producing and disseminate the official statistics in order to meet user needs with statistical data on socio economic and other domains.

Summary:

1. The law on Official Statistics after passed the first reading by the Kosovo parliament it has been returned to zero point with the established of new institutions. Now KAS has resend to the government and its approved different from KAS proposal.

2. Peer Review activity took place for first time in Kosovo respectively Kosovo statistical System on compliance with the Code of Practice and the coordination role of the National Statistical Institute. The Peer Team country visit was on 24-28 th July, 2017, The Peer Team consisted by three members two of them independent and third one from Eurostat, observer Institute of Albania INSTAT. Peer review report it’s published both in KAS and Eurostat website as well as Action Plan its yet a draft;

3. Five years Programme on Official Statistics (POS) it’s prepared by Kosovo Statistical system’s members led by Kosovo Agency of Statistics (KAS) according the Law on Official Statistics. POS, its approved by Kosovo Government and it serves as tool of coordination within the Kosovo statistical system. The programme includes activities for the next five (5) coming years 2018-2022. The tool for implementing the POS is annual working plan.

4. Within the IPA 2017, KAS prepared the action document (three years, proposal Project document) in coordination with SIDA and EU Office in Pristina, aiming to contribute to the strengthening of the statistical system of. The Action Document it’s under procedures indicated to take place by the end of October 2018.

1 This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

5. As a part of Technical Coordination Group (TCG) for the 2021 population censuses in the enlargement countries (Eurostat is leading). Kosovo has decided to follow face to face methodology, the questionnaire will be installed in tabloids).

6. 271 datasets, were Transmitted to Eurostat via eDAMIS (dataset and country (01/01/2017 =01/01/2018)

7. Development of online platform of "ASKADATA". KAS has development a user friendly approach on access it its data and continuously supplying/population this platform with data

8. Sectorial Statistics

8.1 Publication of Government Accounts on a quarterly basis ( for the first time);

8.2 Results of the study "Tourism Capacities (Accommodation Units) in Kosovo, reference year 2016" (for the first time)

8.3 ICT survey results published ( for the first time)

8.4 Average salary statistical report on both private and public sector ( for the first time);

8.5 Forecasting population for the years 2017-2061

8.6 Up dated -has been done the Standardization, Harmonization with Eurostat methodologies (EU), in particular the change of the basic year of the Output Price Index and Inputs in Agriculture from 2010 = 100 in 2015 = 100

9. Other publication according statistical release as GDP, LFS, population data’s, etc.)

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LATVIA

Baltic Steering Committee meeting

The CSB continued its cooperation and exchange of best practices with the NSIs of Lithuania and Estonia by taking part in the meeting of the Baltic Steering Committee on 1–2 June in Tallinn, Estonia. As a result of the meeting, the Baltic Cooperation Plan was drawn up.

Official Statistics Portal

On 3 August 2017, the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (CSB) concluded an agreement with the Central Finance and Contracting Agency on the implementation of the EU fund project No. 2.2.1.1/17/I/002 “Official Statistics Portal”. The project is aimed at promoting efficient use of resources in the publication of official statistics, providing the society with sound statistical information and facilitating the use of official statistics in decision-making, ensuring equal treatment of all users of official statistics, facilitating correct interpretation of

data, as well as promoting scientific research and the use of results thereof. It is planned to complete the project in the second half of 2019. 

Study visit

On 3–5 October 2017, the CSB hosted a study visit of experts from Albania and Kosovo within the framework of the IPA 2014 Multi-Beneficiary Statistical Cooperation Programme. The visit was aimed at sharing experiences and good practices regarding the organisation of labour force surveys – representatives from Albania and Kosovo were interested in the use of administrative data in LFS, the Social Statistics Data Warehouse, as well as cooperation with data holders. Interest was also expressed regarding the sending of data to Eurostat, as well as the preparation of quality reports.

SDGs

National implementation of SDGs is coordinated by the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre (CSCC), responsible for mid-term and long-term policy planning documents: Sustainable Development Strategy of Latvia until 2030 (Latvia 2030) and National Development Plan of Latvia for 2014-2020 (NDP2020). Both documents are now in mid-term review process, and SDGs will be mainstreamed within these existing documents during the review.

Also, the Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre is preparing the first Voluntary National Review of the SDG indicators, which is going to be presented in UN in July. There is a working group consisting of representatives from state institutions and NGOs. It is planned that the review (with annexes) will consist of 100 pages.

CSB is part of the informal SDG implementation group (along MFA and Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development). We consult ministries regarding SDG indicators in national context, and assume certain coordinating functions for the global reporting of SDG indicators.

Over the years 2017 and 2018, the CSB has made an SDG indicator data accessibility review with reports from our partners in other institutions.

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LITHUANIA

In 2017, the twinning project of Statistics Denmark “Strengthening of the national statistical system in Armenia” was completed. The experts of Statistics Lithuania provided assistance in the improvement of demographic and innovation statistics. Four visits of the experts of Statistics Lithuania to Yerevan were organised.

The twinning project "Modernisation of Statistics Tunisia", guided by Statistics France

(INSEE) and Statistics Italy (ISTAT), was completed. Statistics Lithuania participated in the project as a partner. In 2017, the experts of Statistics Lithuania continued providing consultations to the colleagues from Tunisia about the certification of the statistical system according to the ISO standard.

In 2017, within the framework of the MEDSTAT IV project guided by Expertise France, Statistics Lithuania participated in the regional seminars on publicizing of statistics and work with users (in Athens) and statistical cooperation (in Paris).

Within the framework of the EU project “Assistance for ENP-East countries in implementing EU standards” (ENP-East, Second Platform (Statistics))”, implemented by Expertise France and Statistics Lithuania, specialists of Statistics Lithuania organised a technical seminar on labour market statistics for the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia. The seminar was held in Vilnius in July 2017. In November 2017, Statistics Lithuania contributed to organisation of a high-level seminar on the Law on Statistics which took place in Kishinev. In the seminars, the experts of Statistics Lithuania provided presentations about the Labour Force Survey in Lithuania and the policy of reduction of the statistical reporting burden to respondents in Lithuania.

In 2017, within the framework of the World Bank’s twinning project in Tajikistan “Implementation of national strategy in statistics”, experts of Statistics Lithuania consulted the colleagues from Tajikistan about SDMX and calculation of industrial production index. The specialists from Tajikistan visited Statistics Lithuania and consulted about SDMX, statistical data quality in publications and on website.

In 2017, Statistics Lithuania continued participation in TAIEX programme actions. Consultations about quality management system for improvement of statistical processes were provided to the specialists of the statistical office of Belarus.

The seminar “Official statistics quality: challenges and opportunities” for the Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) and Mongolia was held in Minsk. Administrative data use for the Population and Housing Census 2011 and preparation of the census in 2021 in Lithuania was discussed in the seminar.

In December 2017 ESTP training course “Non-response and non-sampling errors in household surveys” for the representatives of statistical offices of 17 EU and enlargement countries was held at Statistics Lithuania. 2 experts of Statistics Lithuania conducted this course.

Together with foreign partners, Statistics Lithuania, as a consortium partner, in 2017, under the guidance of the ICON-Institute (Germany), together with statistical offices of Germany, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, a new EU tender for the assistance to the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan in implementation of the EU standards was won.

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LUXEMBOURG

Bilateral cooperation between NSO

Following the first contacts made in July 2016, STATEC finalized during the year 2017, with the support of the Luxembourg Cooperation, the installation of a statistical cooperative project with the Lao Statistical Bureau (LSB).

This project, which will proceed during years 2018 to 2020, aims at bringing the expertise of STATEC in four specific fields, namely:

the development of a statistical information system on environment;

trainings on process and analysis of households surveys;

the reinforcement of management capacities of the national statistical system;

a training of 3 months for two middle management statisticians at STATEC.

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MONTENEGRO

The Commitment on Confidence adopted

The Government of Montenegro passed at its 64th session held on 22 February 2018 the Commitments on Confidence in Official Statistics.

Achievements

Significant progress achieved in the fulfilment of closing benchmarks for the Chapter 18 – Statistics:

-A set of key tables submitted to EC-Eurostat, as an input for the calculation of macroeconomic data pursuant to the ESA 2010;

-Increased use of administrative sources aimed at reducing costs and overburden of reporting units

During 2017, Statistical Office carried out the activities related to the possibilities of conducting the 2021 Population, Households, and Dwellings Census in Montenegro. An important activity is the estimation of data quality in the existing registers, first of all in the central register of population which is since January 2017 under the responsibility of Ministry of Interiors. In order to estimate the quality of data from the population central register, it is necessary to obtain the access to the register data for Statistical Office.

As an obstacle for closing Chapter 18 – Statistics, there was recognised a problem of conflict of laws of which the 2021 Population, Households, and Dwellings Census will depend. This was also pointed out by high commissioners of the European Commission to the representatives of the Government of Montenegro. Resolving of the conflict of laws that currently disable the access to the existing registers, and thus calling into question carrying out the register-based 2021 Population, Households, and Dwellings Census is the first step in solving this problem.

During 2017, amendments to the number of laws (Law on Protection of Individual Data, Law on Foreigners, and Law on Central Register of Population) were proposed to enable the access for Statistical Office to all administrative sources of data with identifiers, and the right of integration of all administrative sources with official statistics which are necessary for development, production, and dissemination of official statistics. It is important to point out the importance of access to these data that will enable the conducting of the register-based 2021 Population, Households, and Dwellings Census, and in the same time to mark that state institutions are on a good track to accomplish higher quality of state records. This will be an important step toward European integration for all chapters of the negotiation process. Statistical Office is an institution whose work is based on the law which is completely in accordance with the European standards and devoted to the protection of individual data.

The second activity which related to the carrying out of the register-based 2021 Population, Households, and Dwellings Census is the establishment of address register under the Real Estate Administration. This register will cause an increase in work quality and costs reduction in business of a large number of institutions on both national and local level, public and private enterprises, but also it will enable for all interested parties an easier and faster access to needed data. Importance of establishment of address register is especially recognised in areas: demographic, economic, and territorial statistics; spatial planning; performing tasks under competence of: police, military, tourism, health, education, etc. The register is one of important registers for the improvement of e-government.

The Government of Montenegro, at its 64th session adopted on 22 February 2018 the document: the Information on preparations for register-based census of population, households, and dwellings 2021 with proposals of measures for the improvement of

the situation. Montenegro is planning to conduct the census on the basis of administrative sources (register-based census), and Montenegro is seriously working on the preparations for this census (the amendments to Law on Central Population Register, Law on Foreigners, Law on Protection of Individual Data, so that the access to all administrative data sources with identifiers are enabled, as well as that the right of integration of these administration sources with official statistics is provided).

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NORWAY

The core of Statistics Norway’s (SN) development work is to support national statistical systems through institutional cooperation. SN has currently bilateral cooperation with Ukraine, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana and Kyrgyzstan, and is planning projects in Ethiopia and Mozambique.

The main purpose of SNs institutional development cooperation projects is to build national capacity in producing official statistics of good quality and to contribute to the development of well-functioning National Statistical Systems to first of all serve national needs. Within our institutional cooperation projects SN has provided support on a broad range of areas focusing on areas where we have comparative strengths and/or where we can complement other support offered. Most of our current projects involve support to more and better use of administrative data. Support to basic economic statistics and National Accounts is another priority.

The projects in Uganda, Ghana and Kenya are related to the Norwegian Oil for Development (OfD) programme, and include assistance to development of oil related statistics and macroeconomic analysis and modelling. The aim of the OfD programme is to share Norway’s over 40 years of experience from managing oil resources to ensure sustainable economic growth and welfare for the population as a whole.

A prioritized area for SN is facilitating the use of administrative registers for statistical production. In line with this, SN was involved with improving a free administrative system for health data used by almost 50 countries, District Health Information System (DHIS2), developing and implementing a pilot for a DHIS2 quality module in Malawi.

A generic technical solution for statistical business register is under development and is being implemented in Kyrgyzstan and Uganda. SN is still involved with developing a standard report including guidelines on dissemination of vital statistics, which will be followed up with workshops in relevant countries. SN started a more systematic cooperation with major owners of administrative registers (The Tax Administration, the Mapping Authorities and Brønnøysund Register Centre) on a more holistic approach to register development in our partner countries.

SN, Eurostat and UNHCR continued the work on developing international recommendations on refugee statistics through an expert group. SN organized a large meeting, with around 80 international participants in Oslo in April 2017. The meeting was co-organized/funded with

Eurostat, EFTA Statistical office and UNHCR. The main aim of the recommendations will be to establish a better cooperation between UNHCR, the national immigration authorities and the national statistical offices – which in turn will lead to a better statistical framework. The expert group will also develop a technical report exploring the feasibility of statistics on internally displaced persons. This work has been led by a group consisting of the Joint Internal Displaced Persons Profiling Service (JIPS), The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and SN. Both reports (on refugees and IDPs) were circulated on a global consultation round in autumn 2017 and was later adopted by the UNSC in March 2018.

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POLAND

Statistics Poland2 (GUS) is involved in supporting the development of partner countries’ statistical systems and improving their functioning in the framework of development cooperation.

GUS has supported actions taken by Eurostat as regards the Eastern Partnership Panel on Statistics within the Multilateral Platform 2 (Economic integration and convergence with EU policies) since its creation in 2014. Polish experts participated in the work of the Panel in 2017 during two meetings organised in Georgia and Ukraine. During the latter, Statistics Poland expert provided a presentations on quality of life in Poland and achievement of Eurostat´s expert group in the quality of life and its application to the Polish Statistical System. The participation in the Panel meetings in 2018 is also foreseen. Experts could be selected to provide presentations during the future meetings depending on the subject.

In 2017 Statistics Poland organised study visits for the following countries:

Country Thematic area

Moldova GIS technology in Polish public statistics

Ukraine monitoring of a regional development policy

Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo;

representative surveys in agriculture; orchard surveys

2 please note that since 1st January 2018 the new logo and new English translation of our name: Statistics Poland was introduced. Both the Polish name: Główny Urząd Statystyczny and the abbreviation – GUS – remain unchanged.

Serbia

Moldova censuses

SerbiaSustainable Development Goals (SDGs); monitoring of the 2030 Agenda

Georgiaagriculture surveys frame, new methods of data collection in agriculture

The services of Polish official statistics hosted 5 trainees from countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The trainees visited either the headquarter in Warsaw or chosen regional statistical offices. The goal of the internship was to share Polish experience in the field of different statistical domains. The internships also helped to build positive relations between the trainee home country and Polish statistics.

Furthermore, in 2017 GUS submitted to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) applications for implementation of 2 development cooperation projects within the framework of Development Cooperation Plan 2017. Applications concerned the following projects:

1. “Agricultural and forestry statistical surveys as the basis for management improvement of the state policy in the field of agriculture and forestry”.

The project was implemented by the Agriculture Department of the Statistics Poland with the support of the Statistical Office in Bialystok from the funds of the Polish development cooperation programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The aim of the project was to provide the Moldovan statistics with knowledge and practical skills related to statistical surveys in the field of agriculture and forestry. During the trainings, organized as part of the project, the Moldovan side not only received substantive support, but also gained practical information on organization of statistical surveys, the process of data collection and processing, making forestry estimates for the needs of national and environmental accounts, and the possibility of using modern IT and technological solutions in the farm structure survey. Possessing the systematized theoretical and practical knowledge has strengthened the potential of official statistics in Moldova, providing simultaneously adequate support for other public administration units in proper management in the agriculture and forestry areas. A measurable effect of the cooperation was the preparation of a publication for the needs of the National Statistical Bureau of Moldova, containing recommendations and proposals of practical solutions in the mentioned areas, taking into account the specifics of the Moldovan official statistics.

2. “The use of multi-method surveys as illustrated by the example of integrated surveys on trips”

The project was implemented by the Statistical Office in Rzeszów from the funds of the Polish development cooperation programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was addressed to the representatives of official statistics of Ukraine at both the central and regional levels, as well as, universities with a statistical profile. The aim of the project was to strengthen the development of the potential of the Ukrainian state statistics through the transfer of knowledge and experience of Polish official statistics.

The result of the project is a book published for the benefit of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine "Surveys on trips – the use of many research methods. The study presents, among other things, recommendations for carrying out surveys analogous to those carried out by Polish statistics, at the borders, in the vicinity of borders, in seaports, at airports and in households. A universal system combining data from sample surveys with data from administrative registers and non-statistical sources of information (including Big Data), which offers data processing procedure equipped with innovative data generalization algorithms, can be used in conditions of controlled and free movement of goods and services, including in "conflict areas".

Strengthening of the potential of official statistics of Ukraine should translate into information support for providing relevant information and analyses, as well as, for development of systems monitoring the phenomena occurring in cross-border areas, enabling proper assessment of the impact of these areas on the Ukraine’s economy. The planned long-term effect will also be the support for the local government reform and reforms carried out in Ukraine that result from the association agreement.

Finally, in 2017 the Statistics Poland carried out extensive preparations for the organization of 2 conferences:

1. European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics which will be organised in Kraków on 26 - 29 June 2018. The registration is open until 31 May 2018. For further details please refer to www.q2018.pl.

2. Conference of the Standing Committee of Regional and Urban Statistics (SCORUS 2018) which will be held in Warsaw on 6-8 June 2018. The registration is open until 23 May 2018. More information is available at: https://scorus2018.stat.gov.pl/.

Statistics Poland celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2018.

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PORTUGAL

Cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries

In 2017, Statistics Portugal continued to implement the Training Programme of the National Statistical Systems of the Portuguese-speaking African Countries and Timor-Leste, a programme co-funded by the CPLP (Community of Portuguese-speaking countries) Special Fund and by Statistics Portugal. The Programme, currently in a final stage of implementation, has covered activities within the already established projects of Coordination, Legislation, Classifications, Geoinformation, CPI and Short-term Indicators. Most recently, some SDG-related cooperation activities have also been included.

In this context, particular emphasis is placed on the Workshop on SDG’s monitoring capacity-building, promoted by ILO, which took place at Statistics Portugal headquarters, gathering representatives from all CPLP NSIs, namely experts involved in Labour Statistics. This training activity was implemented as a result of the Conclusions and Recommendations of the VII CPLP Statistical Conference (Sao Tome, June 2017), which emphasised the importance of SDG capacity building and the need for engaging in useful partnerships with international agencies and partner institutions to support this effort.

The VII CPLP Statistical Conference also deserves to be highlighted as one of the important cooperation activities carried out in 2017. The event brought together the Presidents and Directors-General of CPLP NSIs to discuss the strategic priorities of statistical cooperation for the upcoming years. The future guidelines for cooperation were agreed upon, with particular emphasis on the approval of the drafting of a new multiannual capacity-building programme, which should prioritise SDG-related capacity-building, South-South cooperation and training activities.

Bilaterally, Statistics Portugal continues to develop cooperation activities with its partner institutions. In this framework, IBGE (Brazil) and NSI Mozambique were the main beneficiaries of technical assistance, especially in the areas of national accounts and Population and Housing Censuses (Brazil), as well as CPI and short-term indicators (Mozambique).

           

Cooperation with other countries

In the context of cooperation with Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries, Statistics Portugal continued to host traineeships and study visits in 2017, in the framework of the IPA statistical cooperation programme. Two traineeships were organized for trainees from Serbia and Albania in the areas of data warehouse and geoinformation systems. Additionally, Statistics Portugal hosted a study visit from the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (SSO), on HICP and housing price index. Statistics Portugal is also represented by a senior expert in a pilot-project “IPA 2014 - Price Statistics HICP”, which is implemented through a consortium with other institutions.

In the EU cooperation framework, Statistics Portugal hosted a study visit from Poland (CSO), on the Third Sector, and is represented by a senior expert in the Technical Advisory Board of the following project: “Development of Conceptual Elements for a Common Quality Framework in the European Statistical System (ESS)”, which is implemented through a consortium with other institutions.

Regarding cooperation with the European Neighbourhood Policy countries, Statistics Portugal participated in a Workshop on Quality matters for ENP-South countries.

As in previous years Statistics Portugal continued bilateral cooperation with partners or institutions from other countries, such as China, hosting study visits upon their request.

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SPAIN

- Cooperation activities with enlargement countries: IPA 2014 and IPA 2015

o Traineeship

In the framework of IPA 2014, in 2017 we have hosted one expert from the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina in our headquarters in Madrid, at the Statistical Dissemination Unit. Currently, in the first semester of 2018 we are hosting another expert from the same Agency.

o Technical assistance in Turkey

In 2017, two experts from INE Spain provided a technical assistance to the Turkstat, which took place during 3 days in Ankara. The assistance was focus on the harmonised consumer price index.

- Cooperation activities in the Latin American Region

o Online training for Latin American Public Administration staff

In 2017 we have continued with the offer of online courses, addressed to staff from the public administration of Latin American countries.

We have implemented during the last year 10 specialized courses, covering different topics related to official statistics.

For 2018, the aim is to continue with this kind of cooperation, which we find a good cost-effective way to foster cooperation.

o Study visits

In 2017, we hosted 2 study visits. In one case, the beneficiary country was Costa Rica, and the aim of the study visit was to help strengthening the Costa Rican statistical system, in order to face the challenging SDGs and 2030 Agenda framework.

In the second one, we hosted staff from the Brazilian IBGE regarding good practices and activities related to administrative developments.

- Cooperation activities in Africa

In the African Region, we have carried out one study visit with the statistical office of Cape Verde, regarding Tourism Satellite Accounts.

Besides, we hope to continue enhancing the cooperation with Equatorial Guinea as an important partner.

- Other activities

We have also carried out different collaborations with different countries, such as Russia, Andorra or Polonia, in areas like statistical training, statistical literacy or population census.

Finally, 2 experts from INE Spain have collaborated with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, giving trainings in the context of two different workshops related to business statistics.

__________________________________________________________________________SWEDEN

In 2017, the projects in Albania and Kosovo have generated positive results within several areas. Business statistics on a regional level are being produced for the first time in Albania by INSTAT and in Kosovo, KAS will, with support from Statistics Sweden, produce a population register that will include data from other national institutions. Both NSIs have made significant progress in increasing availability of produced data by improving their websites and the websites’ user-friendliness. Working together, KAS has helped to implement its time reporting system (which Statistics Sweden was involved in developing at KAS) at INSTAT, in line with Statistics Sweden’s strategy to strengthen and increase cooperation between NSIs in the region.

The third phase of the Regional project in the Western Balkans ended in June 2017 and work is under way on a new project proposal for a final phase to Sida. The project has used staff working in the NSIs in the region by including them as local experts in activities in order to, eventually, make the NSIs self-sufficient when it comes to in-house training. For example, two experts from Montenegro and Serbia lectured alongside experts from Statistics Sweden on a workshop on Material Flow Accounts in May 2017. These efforts will be stepped up in a new project phase.

The final phase of the cooperation project with Geostat in Georgia, which started in May 2011, will end in June 2018. During 2017 Geostat has published a second issue of its booklet on gender statistics, without much support from Statistics Sweden.

In Moldova, the project has contributed with proposals for measures in the important development of NBS’s strategy for user communication. Internal communication has also been strengthened through the continued development of NBS’s intranet.

In Kenya efforts were focused on price statistics, and for two months an expert from Statistics Sweden was on site to improve the calculation system and to initiate an internal expert council on price statistics. The project in Somalia put emphasis on economic statistics and Statistics Sweden and experts from the statistical agencies in Mogadishu, Puntland and Somaliland together produced GDP figures for the period 2012-2016.

In Mali support related to the permanent household survey, EMOP, ended during the year. Statistics Sweden has arranged courses on the calculation of the poverty line and has provided support to poverty analyses based on the survey.

In Cambodia, a review and update of the socio-economic survey (CSES) was launched, as well as efforts to make it more cost efficient while maintaining the quality, to enable future financing by the Cambodian government. In the project in Guatemala the gender statistics component saw the most progress in 2017. Within gender statistics, three missions were carried out that included workshops to strengthen gender statistics.

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TURKEY

TurkStat attaches great importance to the cooperation and collaboration activities with other countries. In this context TurkStat has been engaged in international cooperation activities and providing technical assistance programmes to partner countries for almost 25 years.

New challenges are raised by the rapid globalisation process and by the new concepts such as big data and data revolution. Building statistical capacity in the national administrations of developing countries has become a prerequisite for monitoring the development goals.

In this regard, demand for the expertise of TurkStat arises from various countries in Asia, Africa and Islamic countries. TurkStat has a great experience and knowledge on the capacity building which further strengthened by the compliance studies to European Union. TurkStat welcomes these demands and has pleasure to continue to support these partners.

Consultancy Services and Training Programmes:

TurkStat implements the technical cooperation programme towards Vietnam Statistical Office with the financial support of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency. In this framework, TurkStat organised a training programme for six experts of Vietnam Statistical Office on agricultural statistics in Turkey in 2017.

In the context of the bilateral cooperation activities with Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), a consultancy service was carried out on consumer price index in the beneficiary country by four TurkStat experts.

TurkStat implements also joint cooperation programme with Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), a subsidiary organ of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In 2017, TurkStat experts carried out six consultancy services in the beneficiary countries namely Indonesia, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Surinam and Kuwait on the subjects of labour cost statistics, environmental statistics, entrepreneurship statistics, transportation statistics, workplace survey and dissemination methods.

In addition, TurkStat organised six training programs in Turkey jointly with SESRIC on the subjects such as banking, insurance and financial statistics, state finance and statistics, agricultural statistics, economic and social classifications, tourism statistics, metadata. 12 participants attended to these training programmes from the beneficiary countries namely Indonesia, Uganda, Palestine, Iran, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Visiting Delegations:

The high–ranking official delegations from Azerbaijan and China paid visits to TurkStat in 2017. During these meetings, delegations have discussed significant issues in the field of statistics as well as on the possible cooperation areas between the countries.

TurkStat hosted an Azerbaijani Delegation consisting of eight high level officials from the State Statistical Committee, the Ministry of Labour and People’s Social Defence, the Ministry of Tax, the State Agency for Public Services and Social Innovations, the Ministry of Economy, the Trade Unions Confederation and National Confederation of Entrepreneurs’ organizations on 26 October 2017.

It was a fruitful meeting in terms of both technical contexts on the labour force statistics and introduction of Turkish Statistical System as well as collaboration with the Azerbaijani colleagues.

TurkStat hosted a Chinese Delegation chaired by the Mr. Zhang YUNSONG, Director General of Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Statistics accompanied by five other high level officials from Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Statistics in Ankara at TurkStat on 31st October, 2017.

The main topics of consultations were the Turkish Statistical System, the role and duties of TurkStat, the Chinese Statistical System. As a consequence of the visit, both sides agreed on improving the cooperation activities between two institutions.

Cooperation activities with Eurostat:

15th round of the "No.4 Economics and Monetary Issues, Capital Movements and Statistics Sub-Committee" meeting was held in Ankara on November 7th, 2017. Latest revision studies on national accounts and also economic developments both in Turkey and EU were discussed in the meeting.

Soon after Sub-Committee meeting, Eurostat Desk Officer for Turkey Mr. Ferenc GALIK visited TurkStat on November 8-9th, 2017 in order to discuss latest developments in statistical areas. Revision studies on national accounts, agricultural statistics, usage of administrative records for statistical purposes and international cooperation activities were evaluated in Eurostat's visit.

“Upgrading the ICT Services of TurkStat” Project, jointly financed by EU and Republic of Turkey, was completed in September 2017. Total budget of the Project was 6.2 M Euro. With the programme, knowledge and competency of IT Staff was improved, progress was achieved in software development and information security as well as supply of equipment such as computers, servers, printers, switches, video conferencing system.

Under IPA National 2014, preparation works of the “Programme for the New Era in Statistics for TurkStat” with the budget of 1.5 M Euro, are going on. Service Prior Information Notice has been announced and the contract notice is expected to be published in two months. The main purpose of the Programme is to improve the compliance level of particular statistical areas such as business statistics, social statistics and macro-economic and environmental statistics.

TurkStat is implementing the Multi-Beneficiary Programmes (MBPs) funded by Eurostat. IPA MBP 2014 was completed in August 2017. IPA MBP 2015 was started on 1st July 2017 and the implementation will be finalized in October 2019. Moreover, TurkStat applied for a new grant in March 2018, namely IPA MBP 2017.

TurkStat also participates in Joint Programme for Business & Consumer Surveys, 2015 - 2021. This programme is coordinated by European Commission Directorate General for Economics and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) under Framework Agreement signed in December 2014. Specific Grant Agreements are signed each year for the implementation of four surveys; Consumer Tendency, Services, Construction and Retail Trade Surveys.

Furthermore, TurkStat contributes to internationally funded projects as the expertise provider organization. TurkStat is a member of the consortium led by Expertise France for MEDSTAT IV (2016-2019) designed for some Mediterranean Countries. TurkStat has made contribution to MEDSTAT IV in the areas of Labour Force Statistics and Business Registers until now. Moreover, TurkStat made a presentation on “Why Regional Co-operation in Statistics: A Perspective from Turkey” at ISI 2017 World Statistics Congress in Marrakech, Morocco in July 2017 to explain the benefits of regional programs on statistical cooperation in reference to MEDSTAT and other regional programs.

Additionally, TurkStat organized a training on Seasonal Adjustment and Sampling in April 2017 at Ankara for Tajik delegation under twinning project in Tajikistan funded by the World Bank.

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UK

In August 2017 the UK Department for International Development (DFID) agreed to support an enlarged UK Partnership Programme with the ONS for the modernisation of official statistics. These resources, together with ONS' own ODA resources are being used to:

- establish four medium term partnerships on statistical modernisation, with three African statistical offices (Rwanda, Ghana and Kenya), each of whom are in DFID priority countries, and offer good potential to act as trailblazers within Africa, and with the UN Economic Commission for Africa, to help spread best practice around the region. These four partnerships were formalised during the UN Statistics Commission meeting on 5th March.

- provide medium term support to specific projects which draw on ONS comparative advantage: for example supporting the Ethiopia 2018 census; improving National Accounts through IMF projects in Zimbabwe, Liberia and Nigeria; providing ONS skills to advise on international best practices for measuring quality employment, to develop methodologies for the International Comparisons Programme, and to support countries who want to emulate our national SDG reporting tool.

- host ad hoc visits and support key international events, such as the GPSDD data for development festival which will be held in Bristol on 21st-23rd March.