Developing a regional action plan for the improvement of economic statistics in Asia and the Pacific Artur Andrysiak Statistics Development and Analysis Section ESCAP E-mail: andrysiak@un.org 1

Overview Background Current situation ESCAP initiative Technical Advisory Group Assessment

Background The economic statistics have not received a lot of attention in the Asia-Pacific region, the main focus has been on the MDGs Many developing countries in the region lack the capacity to produce and disseminate basic financial and economic data required for compiling of a minimum set of national accounts and short-term economic indicators Most developing Asia-Pacific countries have still not been able to fully implement 1993 SNA

Background The current global economic crisis further highlighting the need for high quality and comparable financial and economic statistics Adoption by United Nations Statistical Commission of volumes 1 and 2 of the System of National Accounts 2008 The release of the SNA 2008 and other economic frameworks and standards presents an opportunity to focus again on economic statistics

Current situation Many Asian and Pacific countries are still not in a position to comply with the minimum requirement of the 1993 SNA < 1/3 of countries produce all 7 tables of the minimum requirement dataset (MRDS) and < ½ produce 6 tables Proportions are lower for low-income countries, South-East Asia, Pacific This compares unfavourably with the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Committee on Statistics, 2009 The Committee on Statistics at its first session considered the proposal contained in the document “Towards an action plan for the development of economic statistics in the Asian and Pacific region”. Consequently, the Committee on Statistics decided to: (a) Adopt a coordinating governance structure that shall guide the development, implementation and monitoring of an action plan for the development of economic statistics in the Asian and Pacific region, as proposed in E/ESCAP/CST/5, para. 52; (b) Establish a technical advisory group to provide guidance to its Bureau and the ESCAP secretariat on the development and periodic revision of a regional programme for the development of economic statistics……

ESCAP initiative Development of the regional action plan for improving economic statistics, which aims to increase the national capacity, particularly among the least developed countries and small island developing states, to produce basic economic statistics in accordance with international standards and good practices

Project details Developing a regional action plan for the improvement of economic statistics in Asia and the Pacific Until the end of 2009 SD and SIAP in cooperation with other IO

Strategy Conduct a comprehensive region-wide assessment of the capacity of national statistical systems to produce basic economic statistics and needs for support in this regard; Formulate a minimum core set of economic statistics that each country in the region would be in a position to produce, taking into account the varying needs of countries and work on the development of economic statistics undertaken by specialized bodies and related organizations in the region; On the basis of the assessment and minimum core set of statistics: Formulate a regional action plan for the improvement of economic statistics in the region. Provide the specifications of regional requirements for manuals, implementation guidelines and standardized training materials and learning modes for the global implementation strategy of the 2008 SNA to be designed by the ISWGNA

Main Activities Conduct a region-wide assessment of the capacity of national statistical systems to produce basic economic statistics and needs for support in this regard Establish a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to provide guidance to the secretariat on methodological issues related to the development and periodic revision of a regional action plan for the development of economic statistics Convene a consultation meeting of the TAG, members of the Bureau of the Committee on Statistics and representatives from selected regional and sub-regional partners to formulate a minimum core set of economic statistics that each country in the region would be in a position to produce

Main Activities Organize — in close collaboration with SIAP — a workshop for senior economic statisticians from national statistical offices and other agencies involved in the production of economic statistics, to review the assessment of national capacities to produce basic economic statistics and specific needs for support, as well as the proposed minimum core set of economic statistics, and to formulate the draft regional action plan for the improvement of economic statistics Develop a knowledge-sharing website to disseminate information on country assessments and other technical materials

What we have achieved so far Objective Current status Still to do Project proposal Completed, Funding secured _ Technical Advisory Group TORs approved by the Bureau Invitations to countries on 14/07 Assessment of the countries capacity Ver. 1 of Assessment Framework completed Most data obtained Assessment to be completed by the end of October Establishing a network with other IO UNECE, UNSD, SIAP, ADB, ECO IMF, ASEAN, SPC, WB, other Raising awareness of the initiative ECO Countries Other forums Senior consultant/advisor TORs, P104a, Possible candidates identified Employ asap

Plan for the rest of the year Develop a regional action plan for the improvement of economic statistics in Asia and the Pacific Conduct a region-wide assessment by end of October Establish a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) by the end of September Convene a consultation meeting of the TAG, members of the Bureau and representatives from selected regional and sub-regional partners to formulate a minimum core set of economic statistics Organize — in close collaboration with SIAP — a workshop for senior economic statisticians from national statistical offices Develop a knowledge-sharing website to disseminate information on country assessments and other technical materials

Technical Advisory Group Provide guidance to its Bureau and the ESCAP secretariat on methodological issues related to the development and periodic revision of a regional programme (action plan) for the development of economic statistics. Formulate a minimum core set of economic statistics that each member and associate member in the Asian and Pacific region would be in a position to produce, taking into account the varying country needs and work on the development of economic statistics undertaken by specialized bodies and related organizations in the region.

Technical Advisory Group Provide advice on: Developing an assessment framework of country capacities to produce economic statistics; Conducting an assessment of country capacities to produce economic statistics; Producing a report on the assessment of country capacities to produce economic statistics; Identifying commonalities of issues related to the economic statistics in the region and providing advice on the best strategy and measure for addressing them, including technical cooperation; How to link up the ESCAP secretariat’s activities with the 2008 SNA global implementation strategy; The possibility of an international manual on the minimum core set of economic indicators.

Technical Advisory Group Made up of no more than 6 national experts as well as experts from the ESCAP secretariat and other international regional and subregional organizations. The final decision on the composition of the TAG will be made by the ESCAP secretariat in consultation with the Bureau. The Bureau is propositioning the following selection criteria for national experts: Excellent knowledge of official statistics and national statistical systems Extensive experience at the senior management level in the area of economic statistics Good understanding of issues related to economic statistics in the Asia and the Pacific region Ability to communicate well in English

Assessment Objective: Produce a comprehensive assessment of the current state of basic economic statistics in ESCAP region, identify problem areas and specific needs. Strategy: Complete the assessment by sourcing the information from other international regional and subregional organizations and where necessary, from national websites and other sources. National organizations will only be contacted where it is not possible to source the information from elsewhere. The preliminary results of the assessment for each country will be sent to the relevant NSOs to give the countries the opportunity to review and validate the results.

Assessment The results of the assessment will be used to produce the following outputs: Provide the basis for the development of a regional action plan for the improvement of economic statistics in Asia and the Pacific; Produce a report on the capacity of national statistical systems in the ESCAP region to produce basic economic statistics and needs for support in this regard; Provide the basis for the formulation of a minimum core set of economic statistics that each country in the region would be in a position to produce;

Assessment The expected outcomes of the assessment are: Provide the Committee on Statistics, its Bureau, the secretariat and other parties with a comprehensive assessment of the current state of economic statistics in the ESCAP region; Develop a long-term strategy for an improvement of economic statistics in the ESCAP region, including capacity building, as well as addressing national statistical systems’ staff and resources constrains; Input to the global implementation strategy of the 2008 System of National Accounts by Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts; Raise the awareness among the statisticians and the policymakers of the importance of economic statistics and the need for increased funding for the national statistical systems. Permit countries to compare their economic statistics capacities with other countries in the ESCAP region.

Assessment - progress

Long-term objectives of the Regional Action Plan Need to address the fundamental constrains affecting the development of economic statistics in the Asia and the Pacific region: Lack of qualified staff Lack of available data sources Theses constrains reflect: insufficient financial resources allocated to the collection and compilation of basic economic statistics; defects in national legal and institutional frameworks that hamper coordination among data source agencies; and the low priority accorded by decision makers to the availability of key economic indicators

Success will depend The success of the initiative will depend on close collaboration with national statistical offices and other agencies involved in the production of economic statistics; subregional partners such as the ASEAN, SPC, ECO; regional partners such as the ADB; and global partners such as the UNSD, IMF, World Bank, and ISWGNA.

References and useful links Committee on Statistics, First session http://www.unescap.org/stat/cst/1/index.asp Towards an action plan for the development of economic statistics in the Asian and Pacific region http://www.unescap.org/stat/cst/1/CST1-5E.pdf Documents for the fortieth session of the Statistical Commission http://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/sc2009.htm

Regional advisory services The Statistics Division of ESCAP offers regional advisory services on statistics Mr. Jan Smit Regional Adviser on Statistics +66 2 288 1689 smit1@un.org

Suggestions? Questions? Thank you