In accordance with the decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus this day is annually celebrated as a professional holiday of the statisticians of the republic.

The history of the creation and development of the state statistics is inextricably connected to the history of the creation and development of the republic. Statistics developed in extremely hard conditions, the conditions of war ruin, hardships and deprivation, suffered by the belorusian people during the First World War and the Civil War.

The national economy reconstructed and developing at a fast pace during the 20-30^’s was again ruined and ravaged during the Great Patriotic War. However, the heaviest losses were the casualties.

The statistical workers passed through the hardships and deprivation of the afterwar recovery together with all the belorusian people. In hard conditions they provided to the government reliable statistical information.

Reconstruction and development of the national economy required use of new approaches to the organization of statistics, expansion of statistical surveys, organization of accounting and reporting in all spheres of the socio-economic life. This could not be achieved without increasing the statistical authorities’ role. The national government has taken important decisions on the increase of the status of the central statistical authority. Currently it takes a worthy place among other ministries and has become one of the leading economic authorities of the republic. The Law “On state statistics” signed by the President of the Republic of Belarus has opened big possibilities for increasing the statistical agencies’ effectiveness. A number of other legal acts enacted in the republic have the same purpose.

In recent years the statistical authorities and their personnel have conducted considerable work to transfer the statistics to the international standards, assure its adaptation to the market economy conditions, technically re-equip the statistical authorities. Together with the statistical authorities of Russia they actively work to transfer to a unified statistical methodology meeting the requirements of the Union of Belarus and Russia creation.

The work of the statistical authorities of the republic to the transfer from the System of Material Product to the System of National Accounts, organization of the households sample surveys, conduct of the 1999 population census survey and work in many other spheres has been highly appreciated not only in the republic but in many international and national statistical agencies.

Positive changes in the state statistics and the statistical authorities’ effectiveness is the result of active work of the statistical workers. The government has highly appreciated their contribution to the development of the national economy. Many workers of the statistical authorities of the republic have been honored with government awards.