Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

The exchange of experience with South Korea in various sectors leads to great achievements in the implementation of economic development tasks in Azerbaijan.

The representatives of the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan visited South Korea on September 2-6 as part of the project “Strengthening statistical human capacity in Azerbaijan”, signed with the Statistics Korea.

The discussions were held on the cooperation issues between the statistical agencies of the two countries, the measures taken in the implementation of the project and the progress made over the past period.

The meeting also highlighted South Korean experience in statistics and policy, national statistics system, organization of statistical production process and quality management.

Shin-Wook Kang, Commissioner of Statistics Korea, praised the successful implementation of the project “The strengthening statistical capacity in Azerbaijan” signed between the statistical offices of Azerbaijan and South Korea in 2018, as well as the launch of the “Azerbaijan Statistical Information Service – ASIS” statistical data dissemination system.

In his words, all this laid a good foundation for further expansion of cooperation between the two organizations.

Shin-Wook Kang noted that the memorandum of understanding signed with the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan in June aims to strengthen the statistical human capacity in Azerbaijan.

He also pointed to the work done on the organization of trainings on socio-economic statistics and information technologies, as well as the development of statistical training modules, noting that the measures envisaged in the technical conditions of the document for the successful completion of this project were implemented on schedule.

Shin-Wook Kang further stressed that Statistics Korea is interested in further cooperation with the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan and underlined that this cooperation will contribute to the development of friendly relations between the peoples of South Korea and Azerbaijan as well as statistics.

Yusif Yusifov, Deputy Chairman of the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, in turn, briefed on the recent reforms implemented in the field of statistics in Azerbaijan.

“The State Statistical Committee actively cooperates with international organizations and statistical offices of developed countries to study the innovative approaches and the latest standards applied in advanced countries and integrate them into the country's statistical system,” he said.

Yusifov added that cooperation with Statistics Korea, which has more experience in the production of statistical data, in particular in the process of data dissemination, has opened new opportunities for the State Statistical Committee in this regard.

He went on to note that establishment and commissioning of ASIS in Azerbaijan with the support of Statistics Korea is important for the creation of databases accompanied by metadata on a single platform in the official statistical system and presenting them to users in accordance with modern broadcasting standards.

He also stressed that the measures envisaged for this year's project, including the creation of a training room at the State Statistical Committee, the development of statistical training modules, the training of more than 30 Committee representatives in South Korea will have a positive impact on the statistical human capacity in Azerbaijan.

The relations between Azerbaijan and South Korea, established in 1992, became more intensive after the establishment of the Embassy of South Korea in Azerbaijan in 2006 and the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Korea in 2007.

Presently, the two countries broaden bilateral cooperation almost in all sectors. So far, South Korea has invested about $180 million in the Azerbaijani economy, and Azerbaijan has invested $474 million in South Korea. At present, 74 South Korean companies are registered in Azerbaijan that participate as contractors in government projects.

Recently, Azerbaijan and South Korea have signed a framework agreement on grant support that envisages the continuation of joint cooperation on technical assistance and grant support between the two countries.

---

Leman Mammadova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz