The beginning of the 90ies coincided with the
discontinuance of the existence of the USSR and the
creation on its territory of several independent states.
Since that time, the Goskomstat of the Russian
Federation has become the successor of the
experience accumulated by Soviet statistics in
methodology and practice of statistical work in the
area.
At present, there work in the system of state
statistics over 50 thousand personnel. Out of this
figure, 1.7 per cent fall on the central staff, 94 per
cent - on the territorial bodies of state statistics, 3.4
per cent - on the Computer Centre, 0.9 per cent -
on the research and designing institutes.
The Goskomstat of Russia is a federal body of the
executive authorities effecting the guidance of
Russian statistics. It is composed of 88 territorial
committees of state statistics of the republics, krajs (territories), oblasts (regions), autonomous okrugs (districts), and an autonomous oblast, a computer
centre, a research and designing institute of the
statistical information system, an institute of statistics
and economic research, educational institutions (the
Interbranch Institute for Promotion of Managerial
Personnel's and Specialists' Skills in the
Field of Accounting and Statistics (MIPK), 14
colleges and high technical schools, 58 study centres).
Since 1932, the training of specialists for the
bodies of state statistics and sectors of economics has
been carried out at the Moscow State University of
Economics, Statistics and Informatics (known before
1996 as the Moscow Institute of Economics and
Statistics). Specialists of this profile are also trained
in eight regional educational institutions (the St.
Petersburg University of Economics and Finance, the
Rostov State Economic Academy, the Novosibirsk
State Academy of Economics and Management,
etc.).
The Goskomstat of Russia has become the centre
of not only the organization but of the methodology
for carrying out statistical work closely connected
with the economic reforming.
This has required the transition of the Russian
Federation to the internationally adopted system of
record-keeping and statistics according to the
demands of market economy development, in
compliance with a respective programme approved
by the Resolution of the Government of the Russian
Federation No.121, of February 12, 1993.
In accordance with the Programme, there was
considerably modified the present system of
statistical indicators, was created the system of
national accounts, were commenced international
comparisons of the gross domestic product (GDP),
were brought into compliance with international
practice statistical indicators of prices, finances,
population, labour, foreign trade, including customs,
budgetary and banking statistics; was laid the
foundation of the State Statistical Register of
juridical persons and
their isolated units, as well as of the Single System of
Classification and Coding of technical, economic and
social information.
At the All-Russia Conference of Statisticians in
November 1995 Chairman of Goskomstat of Russia set forth the principles and
directions of reforming Russia's state statistics.
The reforming of statistics at the first stage
followed the priority principle when unrelated new
elements were inserted into the old system. Now
statistics enters a new period that would combine
further development and completion of work in the
framework of priorities with modification of the system
itself with a view to adapting it to the market economy.
If at present the information requirements of the
state authorities are satisfied fully enough, then the other
cross-sections of information - entrepreneurial,
scientific and individual - need fundamental elaboration. Further work must be oriented towards the
necessity of merging together information on the main
macrolevel blocks and detailed information on the most
variform microlevel aspects: enterprises, commodity
markets, competition medium, regional economic
conjuncture, etc.
Adaptation of a statistical system to market
conditions is to a considerable extent determined by the
development level of the marketing services of
information resources. The customer and the demand
must give shape to the information "portfolio of orders"
for the statistical system. Reforms in statistics would
ensure the implementation of this order, taking into
account the requirements met for all the quantitative and
qualitative parameters - from the contents and
objectivity to the design.
There must be observed the continuity
of reforms, the stability of basic conditions of their
development, and namely:
- the preservation of the national system of
statistics organization based on traditions and current
relations with the territorial and departmenal bodies;
- the consolidation of the integrating functions of
the Goskomstat system in the general process of
reflection, through information, of socio-economic
phenomena in the country;
- the uplifting of the role of regional statistics,
respective redistribution of functions between the
federal and regional levels;
- the safequarding of objectivity and operative
nature of statistical data;
- the attainment of a progressive technical and
technological level of statistical work, the guarantee
of production and everyday comfort of the workers of
Russia's statistics.
In the first turn, there will be worked out the
system of statistical indicators characterizing, in a
complex way, the economics of the transition period,
the market relations. The work undertaken in
anticipation of this, in the form of a complex of
activities according to a principal set-up for the
analysis of socio-economic development and a
complex system of indicators for the federal and
regional levels in its framework, was completed in
1995. The principal set-up was oriented towards the
solution of the following tasks:
- to represent, in intercorrelated form, the
functioning mechanism of Russia's economics and to
determine the main directions for the analysis of the
processes going inside there;
- to determine the system of indicators necessary
for such an analysis at the federal and, just as well, at
the regional level, with
an account taken of the domestic and international
experience, the recommendations of the international
economic organizations;
- to substantiate modern approaches to the
organization of statistical information; to assign
necessary lasting orientation to the current work for
the revision of forms and indicators of the state
reporting: to develop statistical methodology
proceeding from the contents of the economic
analysis itself.
Basing on this methodology, there will be
ensured greater readiness of statistics to solve the
problems of economics in new conditions, greater
expediency in replacing compulsory reporting by
sample observation and outlining their programme
not only for the near future but in a long-range
perspective as well.
At the new stage of transformation of statistics,
there will be necessary to settle a few important issues
in the field of methodology of statistical indicators:
- to work out the methodology of the indicators
of Russia's national accounts system, characterizing
the movement of financial flows, through the use, as
the basis, of enterprise statistics and also of
administrative and banking statistics;
- to implement a complex interlinkage of
methodologies for various branch indicators, which
means synonimous treatment of statistical indicators
and their through application (from the production to
the end use);
- to improve the methods of calculating
indicators, with account taken of legislative and
economic practices.
The realization of the systems approach to the
reforming of statistics will require renunciation of the
branch approach used until now as the main method
of collecting information, and transition to enterprise
statistics. Such an approach will offer wide
opportunities for profound and interconnected
analysis of the functioning labour markets, capital,
goods and services for a complex economic,
demographic, sociological characteristic of producers;
for a more precise estimate of scopes and directions of
investment flows; for determination of financially
stable and unstable sectors of economics; for
revealment of the effectivity of the restructuring and
the conversion process; for the tracing of the relationship between productioin and ecology.
This renunciation will be accompanied by an
essential reduction of the information load on
enterprises, elimination of the duplication of
information, simplification of procedures and
organization of data collection. This will require, in
its turn, an inventory of the existing store of methods
of data collection for the purpose of seeking their
better conformity with the specificity of enterprises
and ensuring the objectivity of the data collected. In
doing so, there is maintained the orientation to the
census principle when large and medium-sized
enterprises of all the forms of ownership are covered
by complete accounting with a vast scope and
frequent periodicity of reporting, and small enterprises - by sample surveys.
In shifting to the enterprise statistics, the State
Statistical Register (GOSTAR), currently under
way, will constitute the central link of the system of
accounting and identification of economic subjects, a
basis for the organization of sample surveys, a data
bank for "requisite" information and economic
indicators in the cross-section of statistical
observation units. In projecting the system, there is
sought the purpose of having arrays of statistical data
meeting the needs of administrative authorities and
enjoying commercial
demand, with the minimum of input information
at the initial stage.
The process of data collection will be
oriented at the entire spectrum of methods used
in the world practice, including the method of
obtaining from other agencies administartive
information on functioning economic subjects.
In using the systems approach in reforming
statistics, the basic role belongs to classifiers.
With the transition to the enterprise statistics,
there must be clearly formulated the rules of
singling out accounting units and worked out
their classification. The solution of these
problems is related to the creation of
internationally co-ordinated statistical standards
that would regulate the procedure of preparation,
collection, processing, transfer and analysis of
statistical information.
The process of reforming includes the
ensured implementation of the analysis of
interrelationships of various objects in information flows, as well as the possibilities of
tracing, according to an hierarchical scheme, the
initial basis of enlarged blocks of information.
Such relationships are meant as the production
and consumption of produce and services, the
foreign and domestic trade turnover, the
employment and training of specialists, the
structure and volumes of production in
connection with the situation with, and
requirements for, the renewal of fixed assets.
Out of the problems connected with
classifiers and solved in the process of reforming
Russia's statistics, the most important are: the
construction of a system of interconnected
nomenclatures of products and services with
various levels of aggregation, together with the
tasks of analysing and forecasting the economics
settled on their basis, and the integration of
classifications as
the path leading to the creation of information-compatible databases of economic information in
the framework of the entire world community.
The above principles and trends of reforming
statistics make it possible to objectively
determine actual and required volumes of
statistical information to be worked out, which
becomes the initial prerequisite for solving the
problems of providing technical equipment,
structurizing the work carried out either in the
system of EDP complexes or within the
framework of PC flexible programmes. Such an
approach allows to renounce intuitive principles
in technical modernization of the statistical
system, to exclude the possibility of provision of
technical equipment being turned into an end in
itself, to make this process economical and
meaningful in its nature.
The most important element of the reforms
now under way is represented by the technical
and technological aspects of improvement of the
entire system of Russia's statistics that can be
realized in close connection with all the stages of
organization of statistical work.
Goskomstat of Russia carries out active cooperation with the Statistical Comission of the
United Nations, statistical bodies of ECE,
ESCAP, UNESCO, ILO, FAO, IMF, World
Bank, OECD and other international
organizations.
Interrelationship is maintained with the
national statistical services within the framework
of bilaterial agreements on co-operation with the
statistical bodies of Great Britain, USA (Census
Bureau and Ministry of Agriculture), France,
Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and South
Korea.
Bilateral co-operation is spreading with the
partners from the CIS countries, an
agreement has been signed on the establishment
of common statistics with the Ministry of
Statistics and Analysis of Byelorussia.
The state statistics of Russia now in the
process of being reformed is opening a qualitatively new historical stage of its development.
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