On 24 November, 2017 Ms Vilija Lapėnienė, Director General of Statistics Lithuania, upon invitation of the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, participated in the conference "Support to the State Statistical Committee in harmonisation of the National Statistics System of the Republic of Azerbaijan in line with European standards" that took place in Baku.

The conference summed up the results of the Global Assessment of the National Statistical System of Azerbaijan undertaken by Eurostat, UNECE and EFTA. This high-level conference was attended by the representatives of the EU member countries that had already rendered Technical assistance to Azerbaijan during the previous projects – DESTATIS, NSI Bulgaria, CBS Netherlands and Statistics Lithuania. Among other distinguished guests were Chairman and Vice-Presidents of the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Minister of Economy and Minister of Labour and Social protection of Population of Azerbaijan, Ambassador of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, Resident Advisor to Azerbaijan on Twinning projects, representative of Eurostat.

Also, a new project on Strengthening National Statistics System of Azerbaijan was introduced with Statistics Lithuania taking part in it as a partner under the guidance of the ICON Institute and in consortium with DESTATIS, CBS Netherlands and NSI Bulgaria. During the conference delegates discussed the future cooperation directions in the new project, which will go ahead already in 2018. The new project will further improve statistical operations in Data quality management, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Business registers and related issues, Dissemination policy, Preparation of documents related to implementation of the statistical law.