'Enormous progress achieved in energy statistics in Azerbaijan'

The Energy Statistics Newsletter of the United Nations Statistics Division has published in its December 2011 edition an article on “Energy statistics in Azerbaijan” by Yusif Yusifov, Head of Division of the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan.

The article says “Azerbaijan is one of the first countries that has implemented the International Recommendations for Energy Statistics (IRES), and published “Energy Balances of Azerbaijan 2011” according to IRES, about six months after the adoption of IRES by the UN Statistical Commission in February 2011. A lot of work has been carried out in Azerbaijan to strengthen energy statistics and align it with the international statistical standards. This article describes the development of energy statistics in Azerbaijan and the experience of the State Statistical Office in implementing IRES”.

The article goes on to say “There is a strong legal basis in Azerbaijan for the collection and compilation of energy statistics defined by the Law on Official Statistics of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The State Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Republic of Azerbaijan is the institution in charge of the management of implementation and coordination of the activities, and it reports both to the President and to the Cabinet of Ministers of the country about the course of the implementation of the State Program every year. The State Program also makes explicit provision so that the necessary financial resources from the state budget are allocated to the implementation of the actions identified in the State Program”.

The article says “A Global Assessment of the National Statistical System of the Republic of Azerbaijan ,which was carried out by Eurostat, EFTA and UNECE in 2010, noted in its main conclusions the following: the professional independence of a national statistical system, and the principles of objectivity and fairness, are reflected in the Law on Official Statistics; the SSC has a clear mandate to collect data, including data from individuals and administrative sources; and the SSC plays a central role as a producer of official statistics and is the coordinator of the national statistical system, producing (in cooperation with regional bodies) about 80% of official statistics”.

“In September 2011, Azerbaijan hosted the International Workshop on Energy Statistics, which was organized by the United Nations Statistics Division for the CIS countries. This was the first international workshop on energy statistics since the adoption of IRES by the UN
Statistical Commission”.

According to the article “Enormous progress has been made in energy statistics in Azerbaijan. The adoption of internationally agreed statistical standards (as contained in IRES) and the strong political will have certainly been the determining factors to foster this fast development. Azerbaijan is now proud of having set up an energy statistics programme that compiles energy statistics and balances on an annual basis, cooperates closely with data providers as well as data users, responds to the user`s needs, provides data regularly to international organizations such as the UNSD and the IEA, and actively participates in international initiatives such as JODI. SSC has also documented the statistical processes used for energy statistics and the compilation of the energy balances following the structure of the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) developed by UNECE, Eurostat, and OECD”. “The SSC will continue its work on the improvement and quality of its energy statistics”.


/AzerTAc/