News

“Better data. Better lives.” was the motto of the 55th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), which brought together the heads of statistical institution from around the world and took place from 27 February to 1 March 2024 at the UN Headquarters in New York. Bulgaria’s representative at the event was the President of the National Statistical Institute Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov.

The President of the NSI, Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD, participated in the 33rd session of the High-Level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was held on the 25th of February in the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York. Assoc. Prof.

During the 55th meeting of the European Statistical System Committee in Luxembourg, in which Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD, President of the National Statistical Institute, took part, the contribution and participation of National Statistical Institutes in the use of the emerging Common European Data Spaces was discussed.

NSI published an electronic newsletter about the Institute’s international activities in 2023. The newsletter was prepared by the “International Relations and Projects” Department in Bulgarian and English and contains information and photographic material about the participation of the NSI management in high-level forums and meetings within the European Statistical System and other international statistical organizations, as well as concerning the development of regional and bilateral cooperation.

The President of the National Statistical Institute Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD welcomed experts from the statistical institutes of Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania on a three-day study visit in Sofia. The visit is organized under the IPA 2019 Multi-beneficiary statistical cooperation programme which aims to prepare the statistical authorities of the Western Balkan countries and Türkiye for future EU membership. The project is funded by Eurostat and is implemented in consortium with the German consultancy company GOPA Worldwide Consultants GmbH.

Within the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, the President of the NSI Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD participated in a high-level meeting of the heads of the National Statistical Institutes of the European Statistical System /ESS/, which was held in Seville from 27 to 28 November 2023. The main topic of the discussions was “Integration and Interoperability Strategies for Modernizing Official Statistics”.

“It is necessary to build a system that combines different sources of data on children in vulnerable groups – administrative registers, surveys and others, to obtain a diverse range of information such as level of education, labor market participation, health status, housing conditions and etc. Regarding mobility, cooperation between countries also needs to be improved. At the same time, personal data privacy issues must be considered.” This was stated by the President of the NSI Assoc. Prof.

On November 23, 2023, Svilen Kolev, PhD, Deputy President of the NSI took part in a meeting of the Working Group on Exchange of Statistical Data and Economic Information of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), which was held in virtual format.

The two stages of NSI’s seminar for sharing good practices and discussing the preparation of the upcoming 7th European Statistics Competition for students, which will be held in 2024 under the auspices of Eurostat ,were held on 17-19 November in Pazardzhik and enjoyed great interest. More than 120 teachers from all over the country gathered with the desire to work with their students to increase their interest in statistics, and to develop their creative skills through participation in NSI initiatives at the national and international level.

The President of NSI Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD held a meeting with H.E. Huseyn Huseynov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Sofia and Mr. Chingiz Garibli, First Secretary of the Embassy. The visit was of informative nature and the guests showed interest in statistical data on population and demographic processes, business statistics and macroeconomic indicators for the country.