CARICOM

January 30- February 1, 2013Kingston, Jamaica

REGIONAL SEMINAR ON DEVELOPING A PROGRAMME for the IMPLEMENTATION of the

SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS 2008 (2008 SNA) and

SUPPORTING STATISTICS in the CARICOM REGION

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Item IV

Overview of statistical production process in an integrated economic statistics approach

Business Registers

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Role of SBR; Conventional Definitions Issues for Consideration:

◦ Definitions in the 2008 SNA;◦ Units of SBR :◦ Characteristics of SBR;◦ Sources of Data;◦ Maintenance of the SBR;◦ Format and Procedures;

Background and Context of the SBR Manual; Review of SBR Manual Feedback and Proposed Work

OVERVIEW CARICOM

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Key role of SBR in providing quality data for NA compilation but also business statistics;

SBR is the main source of business demography keeping track of births and deaths of businesses;

Provides information on the changes in the economic structure, activity, mergers, break-ups/ splits, takeovers, relationships etc.;

SBR is a frame used for the conduct of economic surveys including the grossing up of results;

Generally for administrative use and for use by businesses (potential).

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Establishment:◦ Economic Unit;◦ Engaged under single ownership;◦ Predominantly is in one kind of economic activity;◦ Operates at a single physical location

Enterprise

◦ Economic unit;◦ Control of more than one establishments;◦ Engaged in more than one economic activity;◦ Operates at more than one location.

Implicitly Establishments may be enterprises;

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Enterprise:

Units engaged in production are recognized by the 2008 SNA as enterprises;

An enterprise is the view of an institutional unit as a producer of goods and services.

The majority of enterprises may engage in only one sort of production;

Large enterprises, may be few in number that undertake many different kinds of production,

Exercises a degree of autonomy in decision-making and it use of current resources.

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Kind of Activity Unit (KAU):

A kind-of-activity unit is an enterprise, or a part of an enterprise, that engages in only one kind of productive activity or in which the principal productive activity accounts for most of the value added.

Enterprises often engage in productive activity at more than one location, and for some purposes it may be useful to partition them accordingly.

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Local Unit:

A local unit is an enterprise, or a part of an enterprise, that engages in productive activity at or from one location.

Establishment:

An establishment is an enterprise, or part of an enterprise, that is situated in a single location and in which only a single productive activity is carried out or in which the principal productive activity accounts for most of the value added.

Establishments are sometimes referred to as local kind-of activity units (local KAUs).

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Coverage & Definition-To determine what units should be on the register and to define them

What “size” of units and measure of size ?

What activities?;

Enterprise groups – relationships with their establishments;

Year of register – at beginning of year (not all units/characteristics may be updated)?

Year of data of items on register. ;

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Type of Statistical Unit (e.g. Enterprise group, enterprises, establishments, Local Units, KAUs enterprise, relationships- do we also want the holding company?);

Legal Status (Public company, Private Limited Liability, Partnerships, Co-operative societies, non-profit-making bodies, Sole proprietorship etc;

Identification variables (identity number, name of enterprise, address, Geographic location such as region, ED No., email (optional?), telephone/fax etc. name of owner/contact person;

Links with other registers common (unique) identifier /administrative number;

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Country of Ownership ( locally, foreign owned and percentage );

Stratification variables (Industry (code), principal economic activity (latest ISIC/ country adaptations), number of employees, institutional sector; sales turnover);

Demographic variables (births (YBO)/date of incorporation, date of changes in economic activity, deaths (Year) - active/inactive)

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Sources are both statistical and administrative and can include the following;

Census of Businesses;

Population and Housing Census Visitation Records

Surveys of businesses, other economic and household surveys (listing records);

Taxation registers/records (VAT, Corporation/Income Tax);

Various business directories such as telephone/yellow pages etc.;

Business associations, media etc

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Choice of data sources – admin/statistical;

Timing of updating (major versus minor) - Continuous maintenance versus scheduling based on frequency of availability of new information/adjustments from the various sources;

Determination of Information availability - information on new businesses, activity changes, incomplete information from some sources (name and address only);

Use of annual BR questionnaire;

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Immediate entry/updating versus verification – reliability of the source information;

Determination of “deaths”/cessation of activities – Date of final cessation of activities, weeding out of businesses versus coding and suppressing;

Establish priorities for addressing serious deficiencies on register – coverage checks, updating of activity classifications etc.;

Frequency of updating

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:Harmonised database format across countries or compatible/convertible;

Electronic database;

Rules on Abbreviation, etc;

Codes for various characteristics;

Availability of Annual Register;

Storage of register at the end of every year;

Confidentiality of information.

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Analysis of information in the register annually:

◦ Demography of businesses;◦ Structure of the economy,

Employees /Sales turnover- dating of information, etc;

GIS:Latitude and longitude points from GPS;

Linkages to other registers;

Quality assurance policy to ensure SBR is of a high standard;

Cost of maintaining SBR/ Resources.

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In June 2008 in Barbados the CCS convened a meeting “ Strategizing for the Improvement of Economic Statistics in the Region”

Present at this meeting were member countries and regional organisations;

Among the aims of the meetings were to: Identify gaps and deficiencies in the range and quality

of Economic Statistics; Determine mechanisms that would enable sustained

improvement in data production and harmonisation; Map of a strategic approach to the development of

these areas of statistics;

Background & Context of SBR Manual CARICOM

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Arising out of the meeting was the Barbados Action Plan 2008 with Activities, Time frames, Source of Funding/Agencies;

To sustain the processes in the BAP the following elements were identified:◦ Critical mass of trained persons◦ More attachments◦ Workshops / Technical training; ◦ Succession planning strategy/ staff development;◦ Strengthen and build relationships with external and internal key

stakeholders◦ Training in Economic Statistics – with emphasis on the involvement of

Regional Universities in Statistics◦ Facilitate the teaching of various languages to Regional Statisticians to

facilitate the involvement of Haiti and to access training in Latin America

Background & Context of SBR Manual CARICOM

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Among the actual recommendations were:

◦ Establishment of a Technical Working Group (TWG) National Accounts/Trade in Services;

◦ Establish, enhance and maintain Business Registers

TWG was launched at a CARTAC workshop in August 2008;

◦ TWG held two (2) meetings, and addressed the ‘Development and Maintenance of SBRs’ as an agenda item by focusing on a ‘Framework for Developing and Maintaining SBRs’ and ‘Developing a BR Integrated Survey Questionnaire’/sectoral questionnaires.

◦ The Group agreed that a manual for the Development and Maintenance of BRs was necessary, and to be prepared by the rep. from Trinidad and Tobago.

Background & Context of SBR Manual CARICOM

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TWG Work (cont’d):◦ The manual was completed and submitted to the

Secretariat on March16, 2011.

◦ After perusal and refinement by the TWG, the manual was disseminated to the wider Region on January 30, 2012 for feedback/comments relative to its improvement.

Background & Context of SBR Manual CARICOM

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Content: Introduction (very brief), Design of Databases- Microsoft Access

Versus Excel;

Compulsory fields to be included:◦ Name, Address (Business), Address (location),

Telephone, Fax, Email, Website, Employment Figures; Employment Code; YBO; Legal Code, Ownership Coe (country and %), Industry, Activity

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Review of SBR Manual

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Other Useful fields: Identification No, Community Code, Community Name,

Contact Persons, Position of Contact Person, Notes and Source of Data;

Businesses vs. Households

Frequency of updates of Databases

What determines the frequency of updates

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Review of SBR Manual

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Administration of a Census of Business establishments;

Deficiencies of the Constructed Register;

Maintenance of the Business Register methods to be used are briefly discussed;;

Summary of Findings

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Review of SBR Manual

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Single Recommended Design;

Purpose and Scope of Register should be established at the outset;

Compulsory fields to be rationalised;

Other Useful fields – suggestions were provided on these;

Links between “parent companies and subsidiaries and branches of enterprises”

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Feedback and Proposed Work

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Use of Population and Housing Census as a source for SBR;

More information required on Census of Establishment;

More information on data sources such as limitations, reliability etc.;

Other Register Issues to be addressed- Rules for updating, errors, dating of changes, non response to register update form how to address, Glossary etc.;

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Feedback and Proposed Work

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THE END

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