BSEC COORDINATION CENTER FOR THE EXCHANGE OF
STATISTICAL DATA AND ECONOMIC INFORMATION
Necatibey Cad. No.114 06100 Ankara/Turkey
Phone: +90 312 4176440/355 Fax: +90 312 4252079
The Participating States agreed that the flow of statistical information is one of the imperatives to ensure successful cooperation in the BSEC. For this purpose, the Working Group on Exchange for Statistical Data and Economic Information was established and it organizes its Working Groups Meetings in order to ensure data comparability and to create the basis of a common economic language, and to supply information in the shortest time possible to other Working Groups of the BSEC and to the decision makers.BSEC Coordination Center for the Exchange of Statistical Data and Economic Information was established within the State Institute of Statistics of Turkey (SIS) on 9th of December1993 by the approval of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Countries. The BSEC Coordination Center is responsible for the activities of;
exchange of statistical data and economic information,
In the context of the activities of the Center,
- Publication called Social and Economic Indicators of the BSEC Countries published annually. It includes social and economic indicators in appropriate of the international standards and aims to improve the economic and trade relations among participating states. The continuity of this work largely depends on adequate flow of information from the National Statistical Offices to the Center.
- A publication including the Foreign Trade Data of Turkey with BSEC Countries is being published quarterly. The last publication includes data for third quarter of 2001. The objective of this publication is to gather data from the BSEC countries and to determine the amount of foreign trade of the Participating States, in order to display the impacts of BSEC initiative on foreign trade.
On the other hand, in the context of the activities, the Working Group Meetings are organized by the Center. The “Working Group on Exchange of Statistical Data and Economic Information”.has gathered four times up to now. The first meeting was held at the State Institute of Statistics in Ankara on October 1-2, 1992, the second meeting was held in Athens on March 30-31, 1993, the third meeting was held at State Institute of Statistics in Ankara on October 5-6, 1993, the fourth meeting was held in State Institute of Statistics in Ankara on April 15-16 1997. In the first meeting, it was decided to establish a body within SIS and named as “BSEC Coordination Center for the Exchange of Statistical Data and Economic Information” responsible for regional statistical cooperation and this decision has been approved in the MMFA of BSEC Countries held in Sofia on December 9, 1993.
Moreover, the information demands from the participating states and from the other working groups are also met by the Center in several areas.
In order to accelerate the studies of BSEC, the Center intends to enhance the bilateral cooperation among BSEC Countries, as the Center has difficulties in collecting data from the participating states.
Bilateral Cooperation with Albanian Statistical Office
The Center within State Institute of Statistics of Turkey implements the bilateral cooperation activities with Statistical Office of Albania (INSTAT). In this context, on the job training about industrial statistics, labor force statistics, construction statistics and price statistics at the SIS was given to 4 experts from INSTAT in 1992 and 1993. In addition, the preparatory studies on the execution of a Albania’s National Population and Housing Census in April 2001 were supported also by Turkey. In this context, the SIS experts had taken part in the preparatory studies and provided the technical support to these studies. For this purpose, on the job training and advisory services was given to the 7 experts from INSTAT on December 2000.
Bilateral Cooperation with Statistical Office of Georgia
The Center is also implementing bilateral cooperation with the Statistical Office of Georgia. Activities of the “Technical Cooperation Protocol” which was signed in 1997, was completed in 1999. In addition, in order to accelerate the cooperation activities with Georgia, a new protocol on Collaboration in the Field of Foreign Trade Statistics between the Government of Turkey and the Government of Georgia was signed on 29th January 2001 by the Ministers of the Foreign Affairs of the countries.
Besides, the bilateral cooperation activities with National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria will be initiated in 2002. In this context, the studies on a draft project is being carried out.