Official Statistics Improving Requires Stronger Cooperation
08/04/2024
Official statistics are crucial for adopting adequate policies that will deliver effective results; therefore, their improvement requires continuous work, concluded the meeting of the CBCG Governor, Ms Irena Radović, with the Director of the Statistical Office of Montenegro, Mr Miroslav Pejović, and the Head of the Secretariat to the Competition Council, Ms Marija Šuković.
They highlighted the importance of statistics, emphasising its importance for providing a realistic picture of the country’s economic trends and providing a reliable basis for making targeted decisions to improve the Montenegrin economy’s growth and development.
They also highlighted the important role of official statistics and their producers – the Statistical Office, the CBCG, and other competent authorities – in the negotiation process to intensify Montenegro’s accession to the EU by producing internationally comparable statistics methodologically harmonised with the EU member states.
At the meeting, they agreed on the synergistic performance of all its producers and on intensifying cooperation to improve the quality and contemporaneity of data, further standardisation and improve the process of organising data collection, processing and dissemination to fulfil the recommendations concerning the Montenegrin official statistics system’s further strengthening and developing.
Governor Radović emphasised that, through its role in the negotiation process and as banking system supervisor, the CBCG will fully contribute to further developing official statistics and fulfilling obligations towards the European Commission.
Another meeting topic was the WE Finance Code project, which will be implemented in cooperation with the EBRD. The project aims to financially include MSMEs owned and managed by women and improve their access to financing sources. To provide timely conditions for implementing the project, the CBCG, the Statistical Office, and the Competition Council agreed to intensify cooperation.
They also discussed the draft Law on Business Companies, which is currently under public hearing and will transpose the EU Directive on the participation of the underrepresented gender in the boards of directors of large private and public companies. It will contribute to implementing the ESG standard and expanding opportunities for Montenegrin companies to place their products and services on the European market.