The fifth phase of the twinning project Support to the State and Entity Statistical Institutions was kicked off on Thursday, 1 December 2011 in the premises of the EU Delegation and EUSR  in Sarajevo.

The project is funded by the EU from the IPA 2008 programme in the amount of 1,3 million Euro and it aims at developing business statistics, extended household budget survey and strengthening the institutional capacity of all statistical agencies in BiH.

Speaking before the Directors of Statistic agencies of Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to BiH, Mr Renzo Daviddi, stressed that accurate, reliable and timely production of the official statistics at the state level is of great importance for the national purposes but also for its European integrations requirements. He also stated his disappointment that despite the EUs previous assistance of 6,5 million Euro, the results in the statistical sector is depressing. He underlined that without National accounts and a Census, Bosnia and Herzegovina stands no chance of becoming a Member State of the European Union.

BiH Statistic Agency Director, Mr Zdenko Milinovic, said: European integrations are not possible without high quality statistics. Relevant EU institutions will monitor candidate and potential candidate countries through statistics.

This Twinning project is implemented in cooperation between the statistical agencies in BiH and their counterparts from Statistics of Denmark as well as in cooperation with other Member States.