Country presentation Mauritius

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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

• January 30- February 1, 2013
• Kingston, Jamaica

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

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OVERVIEW

• 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

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Role of SBR

• 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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Conventional Units/Definitions

• 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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Definitions in the SNA 2008

• 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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Definitions in the SNA 2008

• 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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Definitions in the SNA 2008

• 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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Units of SBR

• 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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Characteristics of SBR

• 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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Characteristics of SBR

• 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 of Data

• 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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Maintenance of the Register

• 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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Maintenance of the Register

• 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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Format and Procedures

• 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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Format and Procedures

• Analysis of information in the register annually
• Demography of businesses
• Structure of the economy,
• Employees /Sales turnover- dating of
  information, etc
• GISLatitude 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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Background Context of SBR Manual

• 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

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Background Context of SBR Manual

• 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

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Background Context of SBR Manual

• 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.

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Background Context of SBR Manual

• TWG Work (contd)
• 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.

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Review of SBR Manual

• 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

• 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

• 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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Feedback and Proposed Work

• 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

• 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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THE END