Director of the SSO at an International Conference on Geospatial Information in Chișinău, Moldova

During his visit to Chișinău, Moldova, the Director of the State Statistical Office (SSO), Dr Dejan Stankov, participated on 24 September 2026 in the high-level international conference “Harnessing Geospatial Information for Enhanced Statistical Data Production and Dissemination in Support of EU Integration”, organised by the National Bureau of Statistics of Moldova with the support of Eurostat.

The Conference brought together representatives of Eurostat and international organisations, national statistical institutions, and authorities responsible for geospatial information, with the aim of exchanging experiences and good practices in integrating statistical and geospatial information and using them to modernise official statistics.

The main theme of the Conference was the integration of statistical and spatial data as an important factor in improving the production and dissemination of official statistics. Geospatial information provides the important “WHERE” dimension of statistical data, enabling the production of more relevant, detailed and spatially enriched statistical information and improving its accessibility and usability.

The Conference was opened by Mr Oleg Cara, Director General of the National Bureau of Statistics of Moldova, and Ms Cristina Gerasimov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova for European Integration. Ms Mariana Kotzeva, Director-General of Eurostat, also addressed the Conference, highlighting the growing importance of geospatial data and the opportunities offered by modern technological developments for their integration with statistical information.

During the Conference, Dr Dejan Stankov presented the experiences and planned activities of the State Statistical Office, with particular emphasis on the development of new modern dissemination solutions and on facilitating access to official statistical data.

In this context, the new product of the State Statistical Office – the AI-powered Statistical Assistant – was also presented. This artificial intelligence-based solution enables users to access official statistical data from the MAKSTAT database using natural language, without the need to be familiar with the structure of the database or with specific statistical terminology.

The Director of the State Statistical Office also had the honour of moderating the session “Challenges Related to Housing Availability – Preparing for the 2031 Population and Housing Census”, dedicated to challenges related to housing availability and preparations for the 2031 Population and Housing Census.

The participation of the Director of the SSO in this Conference contributes to the exchange of experience and the strengthening of international cooperation in the modernisation of official statistics, the application of innovative technologies and the integration of different data sources, with the aim of improving the quality, relevance and accessibility of statistical data and supporting the European integration process.