On November 11-14 this year, at the invitation of the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom, a delegation led by the Director of the Statistics Agency under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Begalov Bahodir paid an official visit to London.

According to the Statistics Agency, meetings were held at the London headquarters of the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom.

At the meeting, the best practices of the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom were studied on the legislative framework for obtaining, processing, storing, and distributing data in statistical activities, national practice, existing problems, and shortcomings, as well as the UK’s experience in solving them. The Uzbekistan delegation also got acquainted with the features of ensuring the effective use of administrative data in activities, issues of integration with other departments, obstacles, problems and solutions, the UK’s experience in the formation and maintenance of statistical registers (enterprises and organizations, sectors of the economy, population, etc., features of conducting trade statistics, practical use of modern digital technologies, the results achieved in the digitalization of the activities of the national statistical system of the United Kingdom, unique UK experience in organizing and conducting accounting events (population, agriculture, business), and the extensive use of outsourcing opportunities in the UK Office for National Statistics.

During the visit, the information exchange processes between the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom and other agencies were studied directly on the spot.

A presentation was held on “Large-scale reforms being implemented in Uzbekistan to reform the national statistical system: results achieved and plans for the future”. Information was provided on the ongoing work on digitalizing the system’s activities, the widespread introduction of digital technologies into statistical processes, careful preparation for accounting events, and other relevant issues on the agenda.

Information was provided on the work carried out in recent years as part of the administrative reforms of New Uzbekistan, including ensuring openness and transparency, establishing activities based on advanced quality management systems, the results achieved in the implementation of statistical processes in accordance with the latest international statistical methodologies, as well as on the achievements noted in the assessments of the Open Data Inventory (ODIN) in achieving Sustainable Development Goals and maintaining gender statistics, and also about obtaining the national and international ISO-9001 certificate for the activities of the Agency’s statistics system and the compliance of statistical data with quality criteria.

At the meetings, issues of signing a Memorandum of Understanding and cooperation in statistics between the Office for National Statistics of the United Kingdom and the Statistics Agency under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan were discussed.

Based on the experience learned during this business trip, it is planned to introduce modern digital technologies into the registration process, the introduction of artificial intelligence (ChatbotAI) and big data processing technologies (BigData) into the e-Stat-4.0 information system, which will allow respondents to receive answers to questions arising in the process of filling out reports through artificial intelligence, and also to develop the methodology of statistics of other industries.

UzA