1. National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia Armenia experience “Developing quality reports and their role in a quality management system” High Level Seminar for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia Countries (EECCA) on 'Quality in Statistics: Administrative Data and Official Statistics' 4-6 September 2013, Vilnius, Lithuania Ðì SA

2. Global Assessment The Global Assessment of the National System of Official Statistics of the Republic of Armenia was jointly undertaken by the consultants of the European Commission (Eurostat), European Free Trade Association (EFTA), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in January 2009. The quality management system was found to be area for improvement. The Global Assessment recommended: as there are no follow- up of the TACIS programmes, the cooperation with EU have to focus on other instruments. Twinning would be suitable.

3. Forwarding Armenian Statistics Through Twinning General Objective was to harmonise Armenian statistics with EU standards Implementation period January 2011- February 2013 NSS RA’s main partner was Statistics Denmark Five other EU countries were involved: Germany (junior partner), Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania Focus on EU methodologies Sustainable results Administrative registers for statistical purposes The ENP/Twinning ”Forwarding Armenian Statistics Through Twinning“ webpage has been launched at the NSS RA`s website www.armstat.amwww.armstat.am

4. Six Components 1. Component Quality Management 2. Component Business statistics, response burden 3. Component Improvement of the Exhaustiveness of GDP 4. Component Agricultural Census 5. Component Harmonized Consumer Price Index 6. Component ICT Society

5. Component : QUALITY MANAGEMENT One result of the EU Twinning project “Forwarding Armenian Statistics through Twinning” aimed at enhancing the quality and role of statistics in Armenia. Objective of the “Quality Management” Component was documentation, metadata and quality indicators for all major collections of the NSS RA that are collected, systematized, published on NSS RA`s website at: www.armstat.am

6. Implementation The Working Group on quality management has been established, involving participants from: Statistical Work Methodology and Classifications, International Statistical Co- operation, Statistical Information Dissemination and Marketing, Information Technologies, Business Register/sampling expert, Price statistics, Labour statistics, Households Surveys, Industry Statistics and Agriculture Statistics. A complete list of NSS RA`s statistical products has been developed. During 2011 and 2012 quality declarations have been developed for each of the statistical products of NSS RA according to the "Quality declaration of the European statistical system", currently 136 products which are organized under 17 statistical domains: Economy and finance, Population and social processes, Industry, construction, trade and services, Transport and tourism, Foreign trade, Agriculture, forestry and fishing, Food Security, Environment and energy. "Quality declaration of the European statistical system"Economy and financePopulation and social processesIndustry, construction, trade and servicesTransport and tourismForeign tradeAgriculture, forestry and fishing,Environment and energy

7. Quality declarations Quality declarations describe the regulatory background of statistics and the purpose, and explain to all statistical information users the statistics methodologies and its dissemination, how statistics is produced and how it should be interpreted and used, and other important information for users. The “Documentation” webpage has been launched at the NSS RA`s website. The quality declarations for all statistical products are published on the NSS RA`s website at www.armstat.am. Sampling error measurement has been introduced (quality indicator).www.armstat.am The PC Axis/PX Web dissemination tool has been installed and ARMSTATBANK.AM has been created that gives users fast and easy access to statistical information, and allows to download data in MS Excel, xml or other formats, as well as to create graphs and tables designed according to their needs. The NSS RA was the first statistical office in the world to use the new 2012 version of PX Web. The ARMSTATBANK.AM provides the link to Quality Declarations.

8. The Role of Quality Declarations Quality declarations play a key role in the quality management system, because of quality is a central concern of any NSO. The Quality of official statistics is a broad concept and not only directed to the task of meeting users and stakeholders needs, but also addressing respondent concerns regarding the reporting burden and confidentiality, sound methodology, professional independence and resources. In the long run, a good quality is intended to an increase of trust in official statistics. The lack of trust in official statistics is also stipulated by objective reasons (“OBJECTIVE REASONS OF THE LACK OF TRUST IN OFFICIAL STATISTICS” at www.armstat.am) that is why a continual improvement of quality activity should be a permanent objective of NSOs.www.armstat.am The NSS RA`s quality work is highly appreciated by statistical information users, the NSS RA is continuing to get a positive feedback from users. Quality declarations give a possibility to enhance user awareness of the strengths and limitations of the produced statistics. They give better transparency and reinforce the image of the NSS RA. The NSS RA provides information on the main quality characteristics of each product in a user-friendly and accessible form so that users are able to assess product quality.

9. Continuation Quality declarations provide the systematic standard mechanism of quality control for the NSS RA that obliges staff to come together from different areas to discuss, identify quality issues and solve quality problems, to intensify the interaction between staff across the NSS RA, to increase the coordination within the statistical system of the country. They provide a good basis for creating and maintaining a quality culture and are used as valuable source of information for training and other purposes. Although, at the initial stage the introduction of the tool of quality declarations required significant efforts of the NSS RA`s staff, at present they don't put additional burden on NSS RA and allow to easily map quality dimensions, based on a common template, and implement updates, if necessary.

10. Library and Internet The library is rich with all the statistical products of the NSS, statistical publications of other countries and international organizations, methodological handbooks, text-books, legal documents, etc. The statistics library is open to the general public. Library` s electronic catalogue is accessible from the Internet. Internet: http://www.armstat.am/www.armstat.info

11. Thank you NATIONAL STATISTICAL SERVICE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA 3 Government House Republic ave. Yerevan 0010 Republic of Armenia Telephone: (37410) 524 213 Fax: (37410) 521 921 E-mail: armstat@sci.am Internet: http://www.armstat.am/www.info.am