Central Business Register Central Statistics Office Presented By Deepuk Bahadoor Central Statistics Office MAURITIUS 1/1/2019

Central Business Register ULTIMATE AIM To have a live Central Business Register containing primary data on all businesses in the Republic of Mauritius. 1/1/2019

Central Business Register 1995 - CBR Unit was setup for the first time to compile a Business Register Why? Sampling Frame for the 1997 Census of Economic Activities 1/1/2019

Main Data Source Licenses issued by the 5 Municipalities and 4 District Councils (Local Authorities) of Mauritius 1/1/2019

Data Quality (a) Units: Licenses issued instead of establishments Classifications: Trade codes being used Coverage: Not all activities are covered Demography: Outdated Information (Operational, Closed, Dormant etc.) Periodicity: Annual Timeliness: 5-6 months after reference period 1/1/2019

Improving the Business Register Classifications Trade Codes and description of activities at local authorities NSIC coded at CSO (around 80,000 licenses!) Training of staff of Local Authorities for codification of activities by NSIC 1/1/2019

Improving the Business Register Coverage Tapping other sources (a) National Transport Authority (Public transport) (b) Ministry of Education (Private schools) (c )Judicial Department (Legal activities) (d) Professional Councils (Medical Practitioners, Dentists, Architects, etc.) (e) Customs Department (Freeport companies) 1/1/2019

Improving the Business Register Coverage (Cont’d) (f) Financial Services Commission (Offshore Companies) (g) The Police Department (Driving schools) (h) Tourism Authority (Tourism activities) Beach Authority (Activities on the beaches) (j) Government and parastatal bodies (k) Agricultural Units from Ministry of Agriculture (L) Non-Profit Institutions 1/1/2019

Improving the Business Register Demography (New, operational, Dormant and Closed businesses) List of New businesses and closed ones provided by Local Authorities for the year Quality of information 10-20% - Changed activities / dormant / closed (1997 Census of Economic Activities) 1/1/2019

Improving the Business Register Periodicity and Timeliness (Data submission by local authorities) Annual up to 2007 (Within 6 months after reference period) Bi-annual – 2007 to 2009 (Within 2 months after reference period) Quarterly – 2010 (Within 6 weeks after reference period) 1/1/2019

Sampling Frame of Establishments Licenses v/s Establishments Construction of sampling frame of establishments for the Census of Economic Activities – Consolidation of Licenses to establishment – (4 months work!!) 1/1/2019

Use of the Business register Sampling Frame List of establishments to researchers Annual Publications (Economic and Social Indicators and Digest of Business Activities) Indicators - Evolution of licenses/Registrations by District, Activity - NSIC (2 or more digit level) Estimates of Gross output and Value added for certain activities for National Accounts purposes 1/1/2019

Way forward The Business Registration Act of 2006 - New data source – Companies Division - Strength: Upto Date, unit of business is establishment, standardised, Centralised data source, accessibility, Business Registration Number, Periodicity and Timeliness - Weakness: Trade codes v/s ISIC 1/1/2019

Way forward Implementation of e-Business Plan and the centralised database - New Application Architecture based on PostgreSQL - will be ready in around 2 month time - It includes possibility of automatic transfer of raw data from supplier to the CSO centralised database - Data can be listed by Establishment and Enterprise - increase from some 20 to 64 fields (including No. of persons engaged) - Automated validation, coding and reporting with possibility of querying the database 1/1/2019

Thank You 1/1/2019