The Development of Statistical Business Registers in LAO PDR

Outline Structure of the SBR Information sources Technological environment Updating and maintenance processes Uses of statistical business registers Issues and challenges Ongoing initiatives and long-term plans

1. Structure of the SBR Details of SBR information: The SBR team Business demographic information: (Province, District, Village, Village type) Main variables: 23 Variables : (of 50 Var) Years covered: (2013 ) 2015-2016) Number of records (124 Units) Changes in the number of records over the years : Add for new born, record if closed or changed activities Sectors covered: primary, manufacturing, services, government owned enterprises (but not include finance Units) Industry and product classifications: used (ISIC Rev. 4) Local and foreign ownership of enterprises: Covered Small, medium and large enterprises: (yes by labor) Enterprises engaged in international trade (N/A) The SBR team The strength, structure, roles and responsibilities : Not yet

2. Information sources Details of the sources of information Economic census, Surveys (department responsible, title and description of the source , frequency and coverage) LSB Administrative data (department responsible, title and description of the source, frequency and coverage) Line ministries Public information [e.g. quarterly and annual financial statements](department responsible, title and description of the source, frequency and coverage): annually Any initiatives related to Big Data? How are information from different sources linked to create the records in SBR? (set SBR ID to link) Are there formal data sharing agreements with the custodians of the principal data sources? (Tax)

3. Technological environment Describe the IT and computing system in place to support the SBR Hardware systems: (still using general computer, server not yet) Software systems: (supported by ADB) Stand alone or networked? Stand alone and now it division testing to import data Internally or externally networked? Internal net work Durability or lifespan of the systems: at what time intervals the systems are upgraded (e.g. 3 years?) yes Describe the backup systems (what happens if the data is lost from the main system?) still testing IT support: internal or contracted out? internal Are there provisions in the NSO’s business plan to provide long term support to the system? (strategy) Safeguards in place to protect the data (if have would be back up data, 3 months once)

4. Updating and maintenance processes Information updated: (Quarterly or at least anually) Online, batch or incremental updating? Not yet online but future The principal data sources used for updating (Moic, Tax department) How is the new information related to existing records verified? (Manually) Verification/validation procedures in place for adding/deleting records (Manual, and import or entry , old data overlap will delete . What are the “out of scope” or error reporting facilities in the system? Not include in the flame How could new relevant data sources and variables be incorporated? ??? What are the facilities available for periodic macro analysis and high level verification of the data in the SBR? ????

5. Uses of Statistical Business Registers How is the information stored in SBR being used currently???? What are the potential uses of the information in SBR within your country context? Could SBR be expanded to accommodate other data storage and information generation needs of your country? What are the benefits of using SBR currently being realized? What are the potential benefits of using SBRs for the NSO and the government? Flame, estimate economic growth

6. Issue and challenges The main issues and challenges faced in developing, maintaining and using the SBRs: Technical: lack of skill, limited number of staff Technological: computer and equipments Administrative : Resources: Share data Possible sustainable solutions to the issues and challenges noted (Gov BJ plan) The role of multilateral organizations in addressing these issues and challenges : LSB, MOIC and Tax department (MOU)

7. Ongoing initiatives and Long-term plans Current SBR related initiatives underway in the NSO Initiatives in other departments with implications for the SBR Government wide initiatives with implication for the SBR (e.g. digitization strategy) The 3-5 year outlook for the SBR: Is there a plan to upgrade and develop the SBR ? Include in gov BJ plan Specifics on what should be achieved in the 3-5 year horizon : publish The potential roles of the NSO, government and multilateral organizations (Share, Link and Flame for census and survey)