CARICOM

January 30- February 1, 2013 Kingston, 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 CARICOM

3 Item IV Overview of statistical production process in an integrated economic statistics approach Business Registers CARICOM

4  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

5  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).

6  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;

7  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.

8  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.

9  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).

10  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.  ;

11  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., (optional?), telephone/fax etc. name of owner/contact person;  Links with other registers common (unique) identifier /administrative number; 

12  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)

13  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

14  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; ;

15  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

16  :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.

17  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.

18  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

19  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

20  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

21  TWG Work (cont’d): ◦ The manual was completed and submitted to the Secretariat on March16, ◦ 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

22  Content:  Introduction (very brief),  Design of Databases- Microsoft Access Versus Excel;  Compulsory fields to be included: ◦ Name, Address (Business), Address (location), Telephone, Fax, , Website, Employment Figures; Employment Code; YBO; Legal Code, Ownership Coe (country and %), Industry, Activity CARICOM Review of SBR Manual

23  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 CARICOM Review of SBR Manual

24  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 CARICOM Review of SBR Manual

25  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” CARICOM Feedback and Proposed Work

26  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.; CARICOM Feedback and Proposed Work

27 THE END CARICOM