of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia The role of statistics for decision making: the case of Slovene official statistics Irena Križman Director-General of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

Statistical information in public and political decision making Contents Statistical information in public and political decision making Key issues for successful capacity building of the Slovenian statistics Slovenian statistics in EU and Euro Area Users about us Lessons learnt from Slovenian case 2

Statistical information in public and political decision making The “Statistics, Knowledge and Policy” chain OECD’s Global project: measuring the progress of societies 3

Slovenian decision to become a full member of EU and Euro Area Key issues for successful capacity building of the Slovenian statistics (1) Slovenian decision to become a full member of EU and Euro Area The forward-looking management of SORS The support of academia and research institutes The modern legal framework of the Slovenian national statistics from 2005 4

Key issues for successful capacity building of the Slovenian statistics (2) Good co-operation with data providers, especially holders of registers and administrative records SORS established the Statistical Advisory committees in the eighties SORS has a long tradition in intensive relations with the media International co-operation with Sweden, Denmark, Germany has started in the end of the sixties 5

Slovenian statistics in EU and Euro Area Harmonization of statistics with international standards (high quality, EU comparable statistics) Successful statistical capacity building process: →guarantee of non-political objectivity →professionalism →provision of: legal framework organizational position of the SORS within the government human and financial resources co-ordination and the programming of work 6

Slovenian statistics in EU and Euro Area (2) Register-based statistics as an advantage in reducing the response burden Access to microdata with ID numbers for statistical and research purposes requires strict confidentiality rules Stability of resources needed for statistics is crucial Flexibility is required in anticipating and responding to the new needs of policy makers Microdata for research and evalution of policy proposals have become important 7

Users about us Regular user satisfaction surveys → general satisfaction Assessments by international organizations → high level of quality of the products and services For instance: the Code of practice peer review showed particular strengths and examples of good practice in: the legal framework managing confidentiality the structure and functioning of the Statistical Advisory Committees 8

CESifo World Economic Survey, February 2007: Users about us (2) CESifo World Economic Survey, February 2007: 700 economists from 80 countries responded SORS: 1st place in Quality of Official report 2nd place in Website Source:http//www.cesifo.de/DocCIDL/WES1-07.pdf 9

Lessons learnt from the Slovenian case Strong data requirements by policy makers could influence the awareness on importance of official statistics and resources to develop it The good management and the vision of NSI’s are important Harmonisation with international standards requires long-term, organisationally and financially sustainable efforts Organisation of the technical assistance has important effects 10

Thank you very much for your attention. I wish you fruitful work. 11