MINSK, 20 June (BelTA) – Belarus' approaches to statistical data collection merit attention, Gerry O'Hanlon, a leading expert with the first mission of Global Assessment of the National Statistical System, said as he met with Belarus First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Turchin in Minsk on 20 June, BelTA has learned.
The international expert highly appreciated the work of the National Statistics Committee of Belarus which processes a great amount of diverse information. In his view, the statistical office plays an important role in the economy because it provides objective data. “It serves as the barrier to falsified information from unreliable sources,” he said.
Aleksandr Turchin noted that the Council of Ministers is one of the key users of statistical information in the country. For the government such data is the basis for making managerial decisions. The country has been working consistently to improve the system, reduce the number of all forms of statistical reporting for small and medium-sized businesses.
“The world is changing rapidly. There emerge new economic activities that require new approaches to statistics not only nationally but also globally,” Aleksandr Turchin said.
Gerry O'Hanlon said that when leading the Central Statistics Service of Ireland, a country with a well-developed IT sector, he saw the GDP growth of 26% in the wake of re-registration of IT companies. “Digital transformation has a significant influence on economy. We saw that ten companies accounted for about 30% of GDP. That is why we need to be very careful with the data we collect,” Gerry O'Hanlon said. In this respect he believes the indicators of the gross national product and the gross national income to be more accurate in the contemporary context.
The first mission of the Global Assessment of the National Statistical System, organized by the Statistical Office of the European Communities, is underway in Belarus on 17-21 June. The mission comprises experts of the Statistical Office of the European Communities, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the European Free Trade Association, and also independent experts.
