19 September 2019

Celebrations of 100 years since the birth of modern Czech statistics culminated in a festive evening with the participation of the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlíček, Eurostat's Director General Mariana Kotzeva, heads of statistical offices of the Visegrad Group countries and other guests. The traditional Prize of the President of the Czech Statistical Office was awarded during the evening – won by Jan Fischer.

The current challenges of (not only) Czech statistics were mentioned by the President of the Czech Statistical Office Marek Rojíček. “The world around us is more dynamic than it has been ever before. In order to maintain the trust of our users over the next one hundred years, we must face today's challenges effectively. Therefore, we reduce administrative burden, reduce traditional questionnaire surveys and literally fight for every administrative source. We make maximum use of the data available to us and assume that the existing barriers to sharing of data that have already been collected by the state will soon be overcome,” the CZSO President said.

In his speech, the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš recalled, among other things, that the CZSO has long been one of the most trusted institutions in the Czech Republic. “You are a great example of a professional apolitical organization that has been serving the interests of our country and its people for a century through its good years as well as the bad ones. I wish you much success in your socially important and useful work, which I personally greatly appreciate, over the next hundred years,” the Prime Minister said.

Objectivity, professionalism, as well as the art of promoting their view were appreciated also by Eurostat's Director General Mariana Kotzeva. “I congratulate to the Czech Statistical Office, a proud and active member of the family of the national statistical institutes of the European Union, on its past and present successes. In particular, I must appreciate the high added value that the CZSO brings to the development of European statistics,” Mrs. Kotzeva said.

Karel Havlíček, Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, also joined the congratulations. “Quality data is the basis for any decision and I am convinced that it is the statistical service that gives us the system and order into the data. The Czech Statistical Office has always been led by strong personalities and I am glad I had the opportunity to get to know them. I believe that this will be the case also in the future and the CZSO will continue to be one of the most important institutions,” Mr. Havlíček mentioned.

Jan Fischer, the chairman emeritus of the Office, is the recent laureate of the Prize of the President of the Czech Statistical Office. The Prize of the President has been awarded since 2013 and aims to highlight the outstanding merit and contribution of individuals in the field of national and international statistics. In the future, the CZSO wants to extend this prize to become a branch-wide statistical award.

The event in the Liechtenstein Palace symbolically completed the "Century of Statistics" project, which began on 28 January; it is the day when the State Statistical Office was founded 100 years ago, the heritage of which is now smoothly followed by the Czech Statistical Office. Statisticians commemorated the date by lighting the number 100 on the facade of the CZSO headquarters’ building in Skalka, Prague. The Office has also launched a special website www.stoletistatistiky.cz presenting the history and the present of the statistics to users. In May, the Office introduced the book "Complex Things Put Simply" (Czech only), which (in a simplified way) explains important statistical concepts to the public.

Contact:
Jan Cieslar
Spokesman of the CZSO
T (+420) 274 052 017 | M (+420) 604 149 190
E jan.cieslar@czso.cz   | Twitter @statistickyurad

The press release has been updated on 24 September 2019.