The meeting was attended by: Mrs. Delina Ibrahimaj, Director General of Institute of Statistics of Republic of Albania, Mr Velimir Jukic, Director of the Agency for statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Athanasios Thanopoulos, President of Hellenic Statistical Authority, Mr. Apostol Simovski, Director of the State Statistical office of the Republic of Macedonia. Other representatives were: Mr. Slavko Kapuran, Head of International Relations and EU Integration Department, Statistical office of the Republic of Serbia, Ms. Majda Savićević, Head of Department for international cooperation and European integration, Statistical office of Montenegro. A special guest of the meeting was Prof. Photis Nanopoulos, the former Chairman of the Association of Balkan Statisticians (ABS).
The participants discussed the prospects for strengthening regional cooperation in the field of statistics. Special attention was paid to the possibility of restoring the Association's activities.
The Association was established in 1994 with the aim to support the development of statistical practice and the convergence of statisticians at regional level, as well as to familiarize the general public with their work.
During the meeting, a general agreement was reached on the resumption of the Association's activities, about its vision, its objectives as well as about the means to achieve them. Trainings for young statisticians from Western Balkan were also agreed.
During the meeting a Memorandum of cooperation in the field of statistics was signed between the National Statistical Institute of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia.
