From 6 to 10 June 2011 Bulgaria hosted the meeting of the Steering Committee for the management of the Twinning project AZ08/ENP-PCA/FI/06 "Support to the State Statistics Committee (SSC) of Azerbaijan to reach European standards in national accounts, non-observed economy, business statistics and the producer prices index.

The project started in 2009 with a period of two years and is implemented by a consortium between the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Senior partner) and the National Statistical Institute (Junior partner). A beneficiary of the project is the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan.

For the first time NSI performs a Twinning project, which provides a technical assistance to other national statistics.

During the meeting topics related to the progress of activities and the anticipated completion of the project will be discussed. Issues related to reducing the burden on respondents and the work of Regional Statistical Offices will be included.

The guests will visit the Regional Statistical Offices in the towns of Lovech and Veliko Tarnovo where participation of the Regional Statistical Offices in twinning projects based on Bulgarian experience will be discussed.

The forthcoming meeting will be attended by Assoc. Prof. Mariana Kotseva - President of NSI, Mr. Tzvetan Nanov - Secretary General of NSI, Mr. Ringo Raupah - Project Manager from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Mr. Alhan Mansurov - Project Manager from the SSC and a Director of "Coordination of Statistical Activities" Department, Mr. Farhad Aliyev - partner of Resident Twinning Advisor of the SSC of the Republic of Azerbaijan and chief consultant for the “Coordination of statistical activities", Mr. Sergey Tsvetarsky - Resident Twinning Advisor of the project to SSC of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Baku, Mrs. Elka Atanasova - Junior Project Manager and Director of Macroeconomic Statistics, Mrs. Nina Kisselkova, twinning project coordinator and Mrs. Veneta Petrova, Head of International Cooperation and European Projects Department.