International Forum of Producers and Users of Statistics, organized by the Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States with the support of the CIS Executive Committee and the Federal State Statistics Service, started its work on 12 September 2023 in St. Petersburg (Russian Federation).
Chairperson of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus Inna Medvedeva told its participants about innovations in the organization of statistical production in the Republic of Belarus at the first session of the forum "Improving Statistical Production".
Addressing the participants, the Head of the National Statistical Committee noted that "the realities of the modern world and rapidly developing technologies dictate new requirements to the organization of statistical production. The status of national statistical services is changing, functionality is expanding.
Taking into account the enormous experience of work with information, the coordinating role of Belstat is no longer limited by the frameworks of the statistical system. Today it acts as the national curator and the main methodologist in the new data ecosystem of the country".
The Chairperson of the National Statistical Committee emphasized the importance of adopting a legal framework for data management. According to her, "the main initiative of the last two years, expanding the possibilities of state statistics in terms of data management, was modernization of the national statistical legislation.
The updated Law takes into account not only the needs of all participants of the statistical system, but also the recommendations of international experts.
The right of state statistical offices to receive any data from all state information systems and resources, including by remote access, is legally established. The main requirement is the unconditional compliance of statistical staff with all requirements of information security.
Besides, now the bodies of state statistics will be able to participate in the design of information systems, databases (databanks) on the structure and detalization level of the data contained in them for the formation of official statistical information required by users.
Administrative data are used in all branches of statistics. There is a clear model of interaction with suppliers, which simplifies and speeds up the process of obtaining data. The issue of quality of such data remains relevant. Belstat has already developed approaches to building a system of their control. A questionnaire for assessing the quality of administrative data sources has been developed on the basis of international recommendations and has already been tested. A comprehensive document describing the work of statistical offices with administrative data and the procedure for assessing their quality is under preparation".
Belstat is involved in all the processes related to obtaining information in the country, any innovations or changes are coordinated by Belstat. This also applies to the departmental reporting, which is another source of data for government agencies in the implementation of their public-governmental authority.
Chairperson of the National Statistical Committee told the participants of the Forum about the Belarusian experience in the application of alternative sources of data in the state statistical activity - "the innovations in the work with alternative sources envisaged by the Law are the result of practical experience of Belarusian statisticians. The first steps have already been made on application of space and GIS-technologies, "big data" in statistics".
Inna Medvedeva paid special attention in her speech to the new concepts of primary statistical data collection.
The unified system of data collection created conditions for optimization of information exchange within the national statistical system, allowed to ensure the necessary level of information protection and unity of application of regulatory and reference information.
Thus, in the nearest future we will start the elaboration of the Concept of modernization of the Unified Information System of State Statistics of the Republic of Belarus. Its idea assumes transformation of data collection within statistical reporting, obtaining and processing of administrative data, unification of the structure of statistical indicator at all stages of production.
The head of Belstat noted that modern information technologies are becoming more and more accessible to all categories of users and we strive to meet their new requirements.
Thematic interactive systems of information dissemination containing more than a thousand indicators have been implemented. All the services have modern data visualization tools that allow to diversify the visual presentation of information in the form of graphs and cartograms, as well as provides the ability to upload the results in a machine-readable format.
Belstat is currently finalizing the Regional Platform on Sustainable Development Goals. This is the best example of SDG localization, which will allow assessing the progress of SDG achievement by individual regions and compiling sustainable development rankings.
By the end of this year the work on deployment of the Geostatistical Portal - system of interactive graphic visualization of all official statistics will be completed. The system is based on the digitized statistical register, in which geographical coordinates are implemented for each economic entity and a resource of unique addresses is created.
In her speech Inna Medvedeva noted that "any innovations are impossible without the support of the staff, whose professionalism, responsibility and dedication are hard to overestimate. Strengthening statistical intellectual capacity is one of the priority directions of statistical modernization ".
In conclusion the Head of the National Statistical Committee wished the participants of the Forum productive work and fruitful active discussions.
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