Cooperation between Belstat and Rosstat

A meeting of the Statistical Council of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus and the Federal State Statistics Service was held in Mogilev, Belarus. Opening the meeting, Inna Medvedeva, Chairperson of Belstat, noted that Belstat and Rosstat have very close ties. "Today among the important tasks of the statistical agencies is still harmonization of the processes – starting from the model of statistical production itself up to the issue of statistical publication. All this allows us to be in the trend of international statistical practices and to introduce new indicators that are in demand at the present stage by the state and the society, including environmental protection and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals".

During the meeting Chairperson of Belstat Inna Medvedeva and Head of Rosstat Sergei Galkin signed the Plan of joint activities of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus and the Federal State Statistics Service on ensuring comparability in the area of statistical methodology for 2022-2023.

The plan envisages the harmonization of official statistical methodology on the basis of international standards and ensuring the comparability of official statistical data, elaboration of common approaches to the use of alternative data sources in official statistics, and ensuring coherence in statistical production.

“Work on the plan of activities has been intensified due to the adoption of the Union Programme on the Convergence of the Macroeconomic Policies of the states within the framework of the Union State Treaty at the end of last year,” Inna Medvedeva said. – “The activities envisaged in the plan will provide for unbiased, comparable and relevant statistical information in demand by the two states for evidence-based decision making for the benefit of our countries. We are constantly exchanging experience and interacting with our colleagues. This enables us to keep abreast of developments and share innovations. For example, Belarus was the first CIS country to use electronic census format; our Russian colleagues later took advantage of this experience.”

According to Inna Medvedeva, there are many areas of joint work, for example, the environmental component comes to the forefront today. “Therefore the experience of Rosstat is invaluable for us; this interaction helps us keep up with international statistical standards today, and the signing of the plan of joint activities will enable us to develop harmonization of the statistical agencies of Belarus and Russia on a larger scale,” summed up the Chairperson of Belstat.