Large board meeting devoted to the outcomes of the last year and forthcoming duties for 2022 has been held at the State Statistical Committee

On February 11 large board meeting devoted to activities of statistical bodies in 2021 and forthcoming duties for 2022 has been held with participation of the departments of the Administration of the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, top management of the State Statistical Committee of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and local and regional statistical offices.

Prior to beginning of the meeting, a group of employees of the State Statistical Committee was awarded the medal “For distinction in the public service” for effective work in the public service in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan No. 2702 dated 23 June, 2021 on “Awarding public officials”.

Jabbar Musayev and Hamlet Mammadov thanked the President for the high appreciation of their activities and stated that they would make every effort to justify this high confidence in the future.

Tahir Budagov, the Chairman of the State Statistical Committee noted in the meeting that due to successful social-economic reforms carried out in our country during recent years under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev our republic is acknowledged as one of the outstanding countries of the world that has successfully withstood the global financial, economic, geopolitical and economic crisis, and created an exclusive national development model. He also mentioned that as a result of successful policy of the President of the country, in 2021 economic growth made 5.6%, including in non-oil sector it increased by 7.2%, agriculture – 3.4%, industrial production – 5.2%, non-oil industrial product – 18.9%, cargo transportation – 2,8%, passenger transportation – 3,1%, information and communication services – 6,1%, retail turnover – 3,2%, volume of paid services – 4,8%, AZN 16.1 billion was invested in fixed capital.

Tahir Budagov gave detailed information about the reforms implemented by the Committee in accordance with tasks of Mr. Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan related to improvement of official statistics in line with international standards and about activities of the organization in 2021. He noted that in 2021 the State Statistical Committee also focused on the preparation of official statistical information in accordance with modern requirements, the development of the national statistical system, and built its activities based on the program of statistical works for 2021, the methodological and data users work plans, quarterly work plans on economic analysis approved in agreement with the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, aimed at the implementation of the tasks from the results of the Global Assessment of the National Statistical System of Azerbaijan, Strategic Roadmaps for National Economy and Key Sectors of the Economy, approved by Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated December 6, 2016, No. 1138, the Order of the President of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On the approval of the State Program on the Improvement of Official Statistics in the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2018-2025”, dated February 14, 2018, No. 3672, the “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and other state programs. In 2021, the implementation of 4 activities under the “State Program on the Improvement of Official Statistics in the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2018-2025” was completed and a total of 28 activities were carried out, the conduction of activities where the Committee acted as an executor on the state programs, was provided.

One of the main activities of the State Statistical Committee in 2021 was the strengthening of the methodological base, 51 methodological materials were prepared in accordance with the methodologies of the UN, Eurostat, IMF, OECD, ILO and other international organizations. In order to bring the quality of statistical data in line with international requirements, the actions to improve statistical reporting forms had been continued.

The webpage of the Committee (www.stat.gov.az)  had been regularly improved and updated to ensure users’ interests, and the databases covered numerous tables on key socio-economic indicators, the analytical and methodological materials. In 2021, 91.4% of users benefitted from the webpage within the territory of the country and 8.6% from foreign countries, it made on average 10.046 persons per day, which was 20.0% more compared to 2020. For the aim to carry out awareness-raising activities among citizens about the provision of electronic services provided by the State Statistical Committee through the Electronic Government portal, detailed information about these services was posted in the E-services section of the Committee's webpage, and also the active operating of the page of the State Statistical Committee on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter was ensured. In order to enable visually impaired people to use the webpage of the State Statistical Committee, in 2021 the section “E-services” was developed in the new page titled “For the visually impaired” which had been created in 2020 according to the international standard “WCAG” (Web Content Accessibility Guideline, the database of “Azerbaijan Statistical Information Service – ASIS” developed within the framework of the project “Strengthening Statistical Capacity in the Republic of Azerbaijan” implemented jointly with the Statistics Korea, was improved, new sections, including “My Page” section, as well as new features have been created.

A number of activities have been carried out to expand the possibilities of applying information technologies used in the collection, processing and dissemination of statistical data and to develop a statistical information system, the necessary measures have been taken to ensure e-submission of reporting data by respondents without visiting regional statistical bodies, and as a result, the online receipt of statistical reports exceeded 95.0 percent, which made it possible to minimize the level of contacts between citizens and officials, while increasing the possibilities for processing and analyzing statistical data.

Later, regular reforms in the statistical system in 2021, reporting discipline, development of methodologies, organization of works with statistical units and users, use of administrative data, application of information technologies in statistical data collection, processing and dissemination, main actions implemented by statistical bodies towards increasing data quality have been discussed, heads of departments of the Administration of the State Statistical Committee and heads of regional statistical bodies made speeches related to gained achievements as well as shortcomings.  

Finally, Mr. Tahir Budagov, Chairman of the State Statistical Committee had charged the relevant structures of the organization with concrete tasks for quality and timely execution of set duties.