The International Forum of Statistics Producers and Users was held on September 12-14, 2023, in St. Petersburg. The Forum was organized by CIS-STAT with the support of the CIS Executive Committee, the Secretariat of the Council of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and Rosstat.

The Forum has brought together 200 participants from 17 countries – representatives of national statistical services, government bodies, the expert and research community, business, media, and international organizations. More than 120 people took part in discussions directly in the Tauride Palace, where the Forum sessions took place; a wide range of experts joined online.

Noting the significance of the Forum Mr. D. Trefilov, Deputy Secretary General of the CIS, highlighted in his speech that the key characteristic of statistics is its practical value, ensuring the development of approaches for the further evolution of both individual areas and the state as a whole, which places high demands on a balanced and timely improvement of statistics methodology and practice.

Welcoming the Forum participants Mr. D. Kobitsky, Secretary General – Head of the Secretariat of the Council of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly, noted the wide range of tasks which statisticians are facing today and the importance of solving them while taking into account the requests of users as fully as possible.

Mr. A. Korabelnikov, Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, emphasizing the vital need for reliable statistical data for making effective management decisions, underlined in his speech that while accelerating production processes the quality of statistics must not be forgotten.

In his greeting to the Forum Mr. S. Schweinfest, the Director of the UN Statistics Division, presented the main challenges which world statistics is currently facing and the key areas of efforts the UN Statistics Division is making. Noting the importance and timeliness of the Forum, he expressed support for the further successful development of the work.

Mr. K. Laykam, Chairman of CIS-STAT, noted that today’s rapidly developing digitalization creates new challenges and that modern statistics in an era of dynamic global changes must carefully record new phenomena, be reliable and prompt. He stressed that the development by CIS-STAT of an international hub of statistical data, carried out within the framework of the Project «Development of CIS Statistics» is one of the effective tools for solving these problems.

As part of the discussion on improving statistical production according to the needs of users of statistics, the Forum focused on topics such as enhancement of statistical production, digital technologies in statistics, modern statistics from the user’s point of view, development of human potential of statistics. More than 40 reports were presented which analyzed the contemporary challenges and the directions of solving the problems.

As a result of the productive discussions, participants noted that the Forum provided a good platform for the development of a dialogue between producers and users of statistics and contributed to improving the efficiency of statistical production to meet the current needs of statistics users.

	Programme of International forum of statistics producers & users
	Photo gallery