1. High-Level Forum on Strategic Planning for Statistics in Central Asia Countries Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, 17-19 May 2006 Oleg Kara, Deputy Director General, NBS “Building of partner relations with the users of statistical information by National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova”

2. 2 Legislative framework According to the Law on Official Statistics (adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova on 09.12.2004 ) : Official statistics bodies provide a wide range of users with qualitative statistical information on economic, social, demographic situation in the country, state of environment, trends of their development; The activities of official statistics bodies are based on the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics adopted by the UN, in particular:  Impartiality in the production and dissemination of official statistical information; free of charge, equal (by volume, type, etc.) access to it of all the users;  Transparency (in particular for metadata);  Confidentiality, etc.

3. 3 Legislative framework (continuation) National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) organizes and coordinates the activities on the production and dissemination of official statistics; Coordination Council on Statistics (15 representatives of: authorities, scientific, business circles, mass media, trade unions, patronage, official statistics bodies); The list of statistical products is determined by the Programme approved annually by the Government; Additional information inquired by the users over the volumes envisaged by the Programme and other services are provided to the customers for payment.

4. 4 Legislative framework (continuation) Strategy of Economic Growth and Reduction of Poverty (approved by the Parliament in 2005), Plan of Action Moldova-EU ( approved by the Government in 2005) envisage the necessity and measures for the development of national statistics.

5. 5 Relations between NBS and its partners: Other official statistics bodies Users of statistical information Suppliers: - of statistical information - of administrative data

6. 6 Unsatisfied demand NBS S U P L I E R S of data USERSUSERS Burden on respondents

7. 7 Main groups of users Internal users (Republic of Moldova) State bodies Mass media Scientific organizations Non-governmental organizations Business Public External users International organizations Statistical offices of other countries Other (scientific and other institutions, etc.)

8. 8 Cooperation of NBS with the users Bilateral and multilateral working groups with the participation of interested ministries and agencies Cooperation with interested bodies in the development of annual programme of statistical works, etc. Participation in the work of NBS board of directors of representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Academy of Economic Knowledge, Scientific Research Institute of Economy, Finance and Statistics, Economic Council under the Prime Minister of the country.

9. 9 Cooperation of NBS with the users continuation Organization of : - meetings to familiarize the users with the system of statistical indicators, methodology of their calculation, methods of data collection, discussion of problematic questions; - press-conferences on most important events (organization and results of the population census, publication of yearbooks, etc.), - conferences, seminars for better familiarization of users with the role and place of official statistics in the modern society (annually since 2003);

10. 10 Cooperation of NBS with the users continuation Participation of NBS in different exhibitions, book fairs (since 2005); Users questionnaires; NBS library for the users; Subscription of the Republic of Moldova to IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) (2 May 2006 г.) – beginning of the new stage in improvement of statistical information dissemination;

11. 11 Main problems in the relations with the users The users, especially state bodies have not realized yet that the role and functions of the bodies of statistics in market economy differ greatly from those which are characteristic of totalitarian society (especially in regard to the level of details, timeliness, reliability, confidentiality, etc.

12. 12 Main problems in relations with the users continuation Lack of high confidence of the users in statistical data: - insufficient knowledge of the users; - traditionally low confidence in the state bodies ; Low level of the information technology development.

13. 13 Users questionnaire 2005 Relatively high evaluation of the quality of statistics regarding: - completeness - periodicity - usage of adequate statistical methodology - accessibility of data

14. 14 Users questionnaire 2005 Respondents expressed less satisfaction with: - timeliness ( operativeness) in receiving information - level of its details - level of accuracy

15. 15 Strategic planning Main stages of national statistics development before 2006 г. Strategy of statistical information dissemination for the period 2005-2007

16. 16 Strategy of statistical information dissemination improvement for the period 2005-2007 Goal: Determination of main directions and order of statistical information dissemination improvement, development of relations with the users to better inform the society

17. 17 Supply and demand for statistical information Supply by NBS of statistical products and services of better quality enables to: Improve the usage of statistical information, Increase the confidence in statistical information, improvement of the NBS image, Increase the efficiency of NBS, its financing enabling in its turn - Further improvement of the possibilities to produce statistical products and services of higher quality, better satisfaction of the demand (needs) of the users.

18. 18 Main directions of the improvement of NBS relations with the users Improvement of the access of the users to available statistical data by means of improvement of statistical information dissemination; Improvement of mutual understanding, building of more close relations with the partners; Development of statistical system as a whole as the basis for providing the users with qualitative statistical services.

19. 19 Improvement of statistical information dissemination Improvement of statistical publications; Improvement of methods of statistical information dissemination.

20. 20 Improvement of statistical publications improvement of the contents of statistical publications, increase of their variety, Improvement of the visual data presentation.

21. 21 Improvement of the methods of statistical information dissemination Development of electronic methods, especially of the NBS Web page, making it the main source of satisfaction of increasing inquiries of the users; Introduction of the forms of data presentation on the basis of geographic information systems (GIS); Development of statistical information dissemination by means of standard and individual services.

22. 22 Improvement of mutual understanding, building of more close relations with the partners Organization of meetings ( round tables, seminars, etc.) on the problematic questions of statistics; identification for that purpose of task forces; Creation of relations of confidence, in particular with mass media being: - active user of statistical information - its dissemination to public - important factor in the formation of public opinion as well as of (deserved) image of statistics.

23. 23 Improvement of mutual understanding, building of more close relations with the partners continuation Study of the inquiries and opinion of the users, conduct of interviews ; Training of the users and respondents, assistance to their better understanding of statistics Participation of NBS in different exhibitions, book fairs.

24. 24 General basis for the improvement of NBS relations with partners and efficiency of official statistics as a whole Securing the production of qualitative statistical information reliability topicality comparability accuracy Development of information technologies Development of NBS marketing activities, advancement of the image of statistics

25. 25 General basis for the improvement of NBS relations with partners and efficiency of official statistics as a whole continuation Development of information technologies - creation of the system of metadata; - introduction of PC AXIS software; - creation of a centralized data bank (Data Warehouse) with the provision of sanctioned access of the users; - introduction of Internet technology for electronic collection of data from the respondents.

26. 26 Unsatisfied demand NBS S u P p li e r S of data USERSUSERS Burden on respondents

27. Thank you for attention !