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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbian statistics sector to get €2m from EU pre-accession fund

Belgrade, 7 November 2007

Programme Manager of the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) Olivier Bounain announced today that €2 million will be set aside from the EU’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) for the development of statistics in Serbia.

At the final presentation of results of the support programme to the Serbian Statistical Office regarding macro economic statistics and statistics of private entrepreneurship, themed "Better and Diversified Data on the Serbian Economy", Bounain said that the realisation of a new project to raise the quality of statistics has been planned for the last quarter of 2008.

Head of the economy department at the European Commission delegation to Serbia Alberto Cammarata said that quality statistical data help speed up Serbia’s EU integration and added that the recently initialled Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) also contains a section on statistical data.

Cammarata said that the Commission’s annual report on the progress of European reforms in Serbia confirms there has been improvement in the quality of statistical data, particularly those on the labour market and economic activities which have now become comparable with European statistical data.

According to him, it now remains to improve the quality of data on agriculture and administrative capacities.

Director of the Serbian Statistical Office Dragan Vukmirovic said he expects the law on official statistics to be adopted by the year’s end, together with other laws needed for EU accession.

Vukmirovic noted he expects support from institutions in the process of developing a sustainable statistical system, as well as better coordination with institutions which prepare statistical data.

An agreement on cooperation with the Tax Administration has already been signed with that aim, said Vukmirovic and added that the Statistical Office is working on another such agreement with the National Bank of Serbia.