Implementing the EU-funded project “Support for the promotion of the EU’s statistical legislation and statistical standards in the countries of Eastern Partnership and Central Asia”, GOPA Consultants (Germany), in cooperation with Statistics Lithuania, organised a technical workshop for Eastern European, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) countries on December 10–11 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

In 2016, UNDP Turkmenistan launched a joint project with TurkmenStat to improve foreign trade statistics of Turkmenistan in line with international standards. In 2016–2018, Eurostat contributed to this project by providing and financing expert assistance to upgrade data collection/processing using EUROTRACE software (an application for collection, compilation and dissemination of external trade data at national and regional level). It is a generic and open system able to be adapted to national, regional requirements and to most types of statistics. EUROTRACE is distributed free of charge by Eurostat as a part of statistical cooperation with third countries.

This joint UNDP Turkmenistan/Eurostat workshop was dedicated to present the experience of TurkmenStat with transitioning to the latest version of EUROTRACE, to present the Russian version of EUROTRACE software and training materials, which could be useful to the other Russian-speaking EECCA countries, to discuss advantages/challenges of EUROTRACE for the EECCA countries; to discuss the integration of EUROTRACE with other software (e.g. customs data), to present other available statistical tools, developed and distributed by Eurostat (e.g. ERETES, a software for the compilation of national accounts), to present a wider framework for the production of good quality statistics in external trade and beyond (overall quality framework, quality reporting, metadata, reviews of statistical domains).

Besides the participants from NSI’s of EECCA countries and experts, who contributed to the EUROTRACE development, the representatives from UNSD, CIS-STAT, Eurostat, EFTA, UNECE, UNDP Turkmenistan, the State Custom Service of Turkmenistan took part.