Summary of discussion at the Seminar

Abstract

The session was organized and chaired by Mr. Snorrason, Iceland, who had chosen four themes to cover the topic of this year's seminar:

1. Relationship between governments and NSOs valued in terms of the Fundamental Principles

2. Constraints caused by the administrative use of statistics

3. Role of international agencies, heads of NSOs and the community of official statisticians in promoting and monitoring good practices at the national level

4. International statistical agencies and the Fundamental Principles

All themes were covered in the five papers the session organizer had invited. As a further basis for discussion, nine countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Finland, France, Hungary, Slovenia, South Africa, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, contributed supporting papers which threw additional light on the often complex relationship between Statistical Offices and Government. The invited papers were presented by their authors while the supporting papers were introduced by Mr. Snorrason.