The joint project “Strengthening the institutional, statistical and information-technical capacity of the State Statistics Committee”, jointly implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan, on February 23-24, 2021 held a number of online meetings on information and technical issues with Mr. Sergey Kuzin, UNDP international expert. The meetings were organized for representatives of the Department of Computer Technologies and the relevant economic departments of the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan with support of the “Russian Experts on Demand” Programme financed by the Russian Federation.

The aim of the meetings is to conduct a comprehensive review of existing software tools, documents, reports on the collection, processing, analysis, as well as to prepare a report on condition of the information technology (IT) infrastructure, which is currently used by the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan, including recommendations for improving software provision for the collection, processing and analysis of statistical data.

“As a part of the accelerated implementation of digital technologies, the need for data, including statistical data, is significantly increasing, as well as for their quality and increasing the efficiency of their use both in the field of public administration and for describing socio-economic phenomena in the interests of a wide range of stakeholders”, noted Rovshen Nurmuhamedov, UNDP Assistant Resident Representative in Turkmenistan.

The objectives of ensuring end-to-end identification of information interaction objects, the transparency of their life cycle processes, the speed of processing and providing data, the integration of statistical information, administrative data and metadata obtained by various subjects of statistical accounting, the application of an agreed methodology of "production" of statistical information at all levels, as well as the latest information technologies, including those allowing to work with "big" data are very important in the field of statistical accounting.

During the meetings, UNDP international expert with a wide experience in the field of statistics, including in “Rosstat”, and representatives of Turkmenstat discussed a number of issues regarding software for collecting, processing, maintenance and analyzing data, methods of collection, processing and analysis of statistical data. As a result of the meetings, the expert will develop a report on the current state of the information and technical infrastructure of the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan, including recommendations for improving the software for collecting, processing and analyzing statistical data, and terms of reference for a tender for the development and/or adaptation of existing software tools for collecting, processing data and analyzing statistical forms and reports.