The President of the NSI opened a course for young statisticians from the Western Balkans under the Bulgarian Development Aid programme

Today, the President of the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, Assoc. Prof. Atanas Atanasov, PhD opened a course at the NSI’s Training Center in Slivek titled “Introduction to the Theory and Organization of the statistical surveys according to the European standards”, organized under project “Developing the administrative capacity of the National Statistical Offices of the Western Balkan partner countries through training of young statisticians with a view to assisting them in the EU accession process”, which is implemented within the framework of the Bulgarian Development Aid programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria.

“It is of utmost importance for the NSI to create sustainable partnerships with the National Statistical Offices of the Western Balkan countries and by implementing this project we can contribute to increasing their administrative capacity” – stated Mr. Atanasov during the opening ceremony and added that, these types of courses are also a successful tool for sharing experience and building mutual trust and cooperation between statistical institutions.

Over the span of five working days, leading lecturers from the NSI will share their experience and skills with twelve young statisticians from the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, the Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria and will train them in developing key skills and competencies in the field of statistics, in the theory and practice of statistical research. During the training process, emphasis will be placed on the familiarisation and harmonisation with best European and international practices and standards in the development and dissemination of official statistical information.

This is the third such course that the NSI organizes for the partner countries from the Western Balkans within the framework of the Bulgarian Development Aid programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria, after implementing two similar training courses for young statisticians from the region in 2018 and 2019.