On January 27^th 2011 the Council of Ministers adopted a Decision approving the position of Bulgaria as a regular observer in the Statistics Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the determining of the President of the National Statistical Institute to represent the country in meetings of the Statistics Committee.

Bulgaria’s membership in this Committee will be a very important step towards strengthening the authority of Bulgarian statistics not only within the European Union but also worldwide, and the exchange of data with this international organization will be another guarantee of its quality.

OECD members are the most economically advanced countries. In 2007 the Bulgarian government expressed the willingness of our country to apply for a full membership, but until now have not received an official invitation. Currently Bulgaria is a regular observer in several OECD Committees and the membership of the NSI in the Statistics Committee in OECD will be a significant contribution to the official policy of the Republic of Bulgaria towards the full membership of the country and the work done in this direction.