| I.
Organization of the meeting
1. The twelfth session of the Working Group
of Statistical Experts, organized by the secretariat
of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific (ESCAP), was held in Bangkok
from 27 to 30 November 2001.
A.
Attendance
2. The meeting was attended by representatives
of the following 23 members and associate members
of ESCAP: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia;
China; Fiji; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan;
Lao People's Democratic Republic; Macao, China;
Malaysia; Mongolia; Nepal; New Caledonia; New
Zealand; Pakistan; Philippines; Republic of
Korea; Russian Federation; Singapore; Sri Lanka;
Thailand; and Viet Nam.
3. The meeting was also attended by representatives
of the following United Nations bodies and specialized
agencies: United Nations Centre for Human Settlements
(Habitat); United Nations Children's Fund; International
Labour Organization; World Bank; International
Civil Aviation Organization; United Nations
Industrial Development Organization; and World
Food Programme. Representatives of the following
intergovernmental organizations also attended:
Asian Development Bank; Association of South-East
Asian Nations; Economic Cooperation Organization;
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development;
the Pacific Community; and the Statistical Office
of the European Communities. The Statistical
Institute for Asia and the Pacific was also
represented.
B.
Opening of the meeting
4. The meeting was opened by the Deputy Executive
Secretary of ESCAP, who expressed pleasure at
the strong participation of countries and agencies
at the meeting and the close involvement it
denoted in the statistical work of ESCAP.
She noted the added importance that the Working
Group had assumed in recent years, and the relevance
of its discussions to both the United Nations
Statistical Commission and to ESCAP itself.
She thanked the Bureau of the Committee for
their support of the secretariat's work.
5. The Deputy Executive Secretary was pleased
to see that poverty statistics was among several
important topics that the Working Group would
discuss, as better data were essential for designing
effective plans for poverty reduction.
She urged the meeting to work towards harmonized
concepts and definitions for the measurement
of poverty. She also encouraged countries
to adopt an action plan for the implementation
of the 1993 System of National Accounts (SNA),
and requested that it be supported with human
and financial resources.
6. The Deputy Executive Secretary considered
it urgent to generate updated high-quality purchasing
power parities (PPPs) for the region, including
PPPs relevant to the poor. She thus viewed
the International Comparison Programme (ICP)
as one of the key items on the agenda, and hoped
that the Working Group would be able to synthesize
a coherent ICP programme which could be managed
and owned by the countries of the region.
7. It was essential, in the Deputy Executive
Secretary's view, that topics such as the knowledge-based
economy and the cutting-edge measurement issues
involved be addressed, as the diversity of the
regional statistical community provided a good
opportunity for the exchange of ideas and know-how.
She hoped that the Working Group would discuss
how statistical offices in developing countries
could respond to growing interest in statistics
on the information society. With regard
to development indicators, she urged the Working
Group to convey its views to the Statistical
Commission on the recently-released Friends
of the Chair report.
8. The Deputy Executive Secretary invited the
Working Group to provide guidance to the secretariat
on the implications for statistical work of
the revitalization process that ESCAP was now
undertaking, and hoped that the Commission might
be able to utilize some of the lessons learned
from the governance of the statistics programme.
In thanking the participants for their contributions,
she wished the Working Group a successful session.
9.It was noted that the Bureau of the Committee
on Statistics would officiate at the meeting
of the Working Group. Accordingly, Mr
Tim Skinner (Australia) served as chairperson;
Mr Timoci Bainimarama (Fiji), Mr Frederick W.H.
Ho (Hong Kong, China), Ms Sudarti Surbakti (Indonesia),
and Mr A.G.W. Nanayakkara (Sri Lanka) as vice-chairpersons;
and Ms Ch. Davaasuren (Mongolia) as vice-chairperson
and rapporteur.
10. The Working Group adopted the following
agenda:
- Opening of the session
- Adoption of the agenda.
- Overview of significant
global and regional issues in official statistics.
- Poverty statistics.
- National Accounts.
- International Comparison
Programme: plans for Asia and the Pacific.
- Price statistics.
- Integrated environmental
and economic accounting.
- Measuring the knowledge-based
economy.
- Coordination of development
indicators.
- Implications for
statistical work in the region of possible
revised conference, programme and secretariat
structures of ESCAP.
- Report of the Bureau,
including review of programme matters and
provisional agenda for the thirteenth session
of the Committee on Statistics.
- Other matters.
- Adoption of the report.
11. The documentation presented at the Working
Group is listed in the Annex to this report.
II.
Overview of Significant Global and Regional
issues in official statistics
12. The Working Group discussed the item on
the basis of document STAT/WGSE.12/1, which
it commended as a useful summary of events over
the past year. The Working Group decided
to review the issues brought to its attention
section by section, following the same order
as in the paper.
13. In discussing statistics on international
trade in services, the Working Group noted that
no agency was currently charged with the task
of being the international data collector. Although
the Working Group agreed with the principle
of data sharing arrangements among international
organizations, concern was expressed about the
use by some agencies of outdated information.
Additional concern was expressed about differences
between national definitions and classifications
and those in the Manual on Statistics of International
Trade in Services.
14. The Working Group welcomed the finalization
of the Manual on the Measurement of Capital
Stocks, Consumption of Fixed Capital and Capital
Services. It noted that the Manual was useful
for countries interested in measuring total
factor productivity.
15. The Working Group heard with interest of
the experiences of countries in developing their
tourism satellite accounts. It noted that in
several cases the Ministries of Tourism were
the main national users of such accounts, which
were being promoted by the World Tourism Organization
at the international level. It was remarked
that while users frequently wished to have a
single measure of the share of the "tourism
industry" in the value added or employment of
an economy, it was difficult to supply such
a figure. The Working Group noted that tourism
could not be easily classified by the International
Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic
Activities (ISIC) since it cut across several
ISIC activities. There was therefore scope for
developing alternate views of industry in the
ISIC revision process, to better measure industries
such as tourism, transport and information technology.
16. Although it was acknowledged that estimates
were possible, the Working Group noted that
sound tourism satellite accounts were resource-consuming
and depended heavily on detailed input-output
tables, which were available only with a substantial
time lag. It was also noted that some developing
countries with a strong tourism sector were
tending to develop tourism satellite accounts
before having implemented a solid set of national
accounts. It was also thought premature to propose
the Labour Accounting System for Tourism (LAS-T)
for most countries of the region.
17. The discussion on statistics on human settlements
highlighted the fact that only a limited number
of countries of the Asia-Pacific region reported
their data to Habitat. The representative of
Habitat informed the Working Group that his
organization was constantly reviewing the usefulness
for national purposes of the indicators that
it collected. The Working Group noted that the
topic of human settlements was linked to the
difficult question of defining "homelessness"
which itself had links to poverty. The Working
Group agreed that any work to be undertaken
by ESCAP on human settlements statistics, for
example in pursuit of one of ESCAP's broad themes,
should be done in conjunction with Habitat.
18. In discussing recent developments in gender
statistics and related activities, it was suggested
that the use of information technology in households
should be introduced in the United Nations trial
classification of activities for time-use statistics.
The secretariat noted that collaboration with
the United Nations Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM) was being actively pursued in its gender
statistics activities. The Working Group heard
with interest that one country which had commenced
work on gender statistics through a UNIFEM-funded
ESCAP project was now experiencing increased
demand from data users for sex-disaggregated
statistics in regular programmes of data collection
and dissemination.
19. The Working Group encouraged countries
of the region to participate more actively in
the work of the Siena Group on Social Statistics;
ASEAN countries might wish to use the United
Nations Statistics Division Development Account
project entitled 'Strengthening Regional Capacities
for Statistical Development in South-East Asia'.
It was considered important that Asian cultural
values, for example in the definitions of household
and of head of household, should be taken into
account in any framework of social statistics
being developed. The Working Group requested
the secretariat to keep the countries of the
region informed on the dates and agenda of the
next meeting of the Siena Group, which was expected
to meet again sometime during 2002.
20. The Working Group discussed the issue of
the quality of official statistics, especially
with reference to the International Monetary
Fund's Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF).
It was recalled that the DQAF had been discussed
at a number of meetings in the region, and was
a continuation of work on the Special Data Dissemination
Standard. The Working Group noted that there
was no one model or set of norms able to provide
an objective judgement of quality in official
statistics; in particular, "traditional" measures
of quality, such as the sampling error, should
not in any way be lessened and should be included
in the framework in the same way as the other
proposed dimensions of quality like timeliness,
coverage, and international comparability. In
the latter regard it was observed that the provision
of sufficient metadata was very important. The
Working Group was asked to share its experience
in reconciling discrepancies of statistics at
provincial and national levels, caused by problems
of data quality.
21. The Working Group discussed with interest
the Asian Statistical Forum, and generally welcomed
its aim of creating dialogue and cooperation
between official, private sector and academic
statisticians. The Republic of Korea informed
the Working Group that it was its intention
to act as interim secretariat of the Forum and
produce more detailed background information
to be shared with other countries in the region.
The Working Group felt that the mission and
geographical scope of the Forum would need to
be further explored. The view was expressed
that discussion of the Forum by the Working
Group was perhaps premature; the point was made
that in any event the Forum should complement
rather than replace the statistical work of
ESCAP. It was suggested that the Forum should
be discussed in the context of regional cooperation
in statistics at future meetings, including
the session of the International Statistical
Institute to be held in Australia in 2005.
22. The Working Group observed that the direction
of PARIS21 (Partnerships in Statistics for Development
in the 21st Century) initiatives
was still unclear to many countries in the region.
It was further observed that the PARIS21 consortium
had concentrated its initial work mainly on
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) countries
in Africa but was planning to start activities
in Asia and the Pacific also, in 2002 and 2003.
The Working Group was encouraged to be proactive
in suggesting to PARIS21 areas of work to be
pursued in the region; in that regard statistical
strategic planning and business tendency surveys
were mentioned. The Bureau of the Committee
on Statistics volunteered to collect additional
proposals as they emerged during discussion
of the following agenda items. Some national
statistical offices saw particular value in
PARIS21's emphasis on links between policy-makers
and statisticians. The view was expressed that
the influence of donors in the PARIS21 consortium
might make it difficult for some national statistical
offices to become closely involved, especially
if PARIS21 activities were not of a very operational
nature. It was indicated that as the activities
of PARIS21 became more practical they could
be extended to support the work of SIAP, especially
in promoting distance learning. The secretariat
was requested to provide more information on
PARIS21 at the next session of the Committee
on Statistics.
23. The Working Group heard with interest of
the developments introduced by the XML (Extensible
Mark-Up Language) technology for web page design.
It recognized its usefulness, especially in
an international context, but suggested that
adoption of the technology by national statistical
offices of the Asia-Pacific region would need
to be gradual. The Working Group suggested keeping
XML technology under review at the next session
of the Committee on Statistics.
III.
Poverty statistics
24. The Working Group considered the documents
"Recent Initiatives taken by ESCAP on Poverty
Measurement" (STAT/WGSE.12/2) and "Issues and
Recommendations for Improving Poverty Statistics"
(STAT/WGSE.12/3). It also had the Concept
Paper "Focusing ESCAP's Programme" (STAT/WGSE.12/CRP.1)
available as a background document.
25. The Working Group noted that the Concept
Paper defined the strategic thrust of the statistical
programme as the development of common statistical
methodologies to improve the intercountry comparison
of poverty levels, on the one hand, and the
strengthening of capacities of governments to
collect, analyse and utilize poverty data for
national purposes, on the other. The Working
Group observed that if inter-country or inter-regional
comparisons of poverty were the purpose, then
developing common definitions of poverty and
creating comparable poverty data would be a
priority. However, if the objective was
to assist individual countries in their poverty
reduction efforts and to measure progress in
poverty reduction, then national capacity building
and improving the accuracy of national measures
would take precedence. The need for the
latter was emphasized by the Working Group,
as developing data capacity for national policy
making and use was considered to be of paramount
importance. It was noted that the view
corresponded to the stance consistently taken
by the Committee on Statistics.
26. However, the Working Group felt that international
organizations had a role to play in ensuring
that there was common understanding of what
was meant by poverty across countries.
It suggested that an integrated statistical
framework for poverty reduction among the various
international agencies would be valuable. It
was proposed that ESCAP should have a contact
person in matters related to poverty statistics.
The secretariat was also urged to prepare a
manual which gave guidelines for compiling and
reporting poverty statistics, to provide training,
and to organize a forum for technical discussions
where the experiences of countries in compiling
poverty statistics could be shared.
27. The Working Group took note of the fact
that several countries in the region were making
efforts to improve the estimation of poverty
incidence with both bilateral and multilateral
assistance. In that regard it recognized
that measuring poverty, whether for national
policy purposes or for international comparability,
was difficult. Different criteria led
to different estimates. Moreover, the commonly
used $1 a day criterion was often not appropriate
for measuring poverty adequately. Even
in measuring income poverty, complications arose
such as adjusting the national prices according
to PPPs. The Working Group noted that
the broad concept of poverty encompassed health,
education, and so on, which also had to be measured.
28. The Working Group emphasized that in addition
to improving the technical accuracy of the data,
it was important to create linkages between
the data on poverty and the design of appropriate
policies for its reduction. At times,
there was lack of dialogue between statisticians
and planners. While it was important to
improve the theoretical and technical aspects
of poverty data, it was equally important to
identify the characteristics of the poor, to
design and implement programmes for them, and
to acquire adequate financial resources for
anti-poverty programmes.
29. The Working Group agreed that while poverty
statistics was one of the priority programme
areas in statistics, it would not be advisable
to devote too large a proportion of the secretariat's
resources to the topic. There were other
extremely important areas where the Statistics
Division needed to contribute, for example,
in supporting national efforts to better measure
growth and prosperity. The Working Group
recognized that those efforts also contributed
to the ultimate goal of poverty reduction.
30. The Working Group took note of the fact
that the Joint ESCAP/UNDP Poverty Centre/Unit
would have a need to gather poverty and poverty-related
data in its work. The Poverty Centre/Unit
would utilize as far as possible the preliminary
database set up at the United Nations Statistics
Division in New York to monitor implementation
of the Millennium Development Goals. ESCAP
would attempt to ensure that national offices
were not overburdened with extensive data requests
from the secretariat.
31. In discussing paper STAT/WGSE.12/3, the
Working Group noted that there was mounting
empirical evidence that the levels and comparability
of the countries' poverty statistics depended
very much on the methods used in collecting
the primary data, and on the concepts and methods
used to derive the statistics from the primary
data. Efforts towards improvements would
be more profitably directed towards harmonizing
the countries' practices in those important
areas. A careful compilation, study, and
comparison of the practices were a necessary
prelude to recommendations towards harmonization.
Particular attention should be paid to the practices
in China and India, as the population sizes
of those two countries had a significant impact
on the global estimate of the magnitude of poverty
and of the degree of comparability in the poverty
statistics.
32. The Working Group recalled that while international
comparability was desirable, it was more important
that the poverty statistics in a country give
a good accounting of the number of poor, who
they were, where they were, and why they were
poor, to the extent that they served adequately
the needs of poverty alleviation policy-making,
programming and monitoring. Although current
poverty statistics in the region were not at
all comparable among countries, there was evidence
showing that some countries had achieved remarkable
success in poverty reduction.
33. The Working Group noted that there were
alternative approaches to improving comparability
that circumvented the use of national currency
poverty lines and their conversion into a common
numeraire through PPPs. One such approach was
the use of uniform energy thresholds and food
expenditure/total expenditure ratios, and a
basing of the analysis on the proportion and
number of the poor instead of on poverty lines.
That approach might be viewed as part of efforts
to harmonize the countries' practices.
34. The Working Group recognized that comparable
intra-country poverty estimates were easier
to manage and could lead to more efficient poverty
alleviation programmes. Similarly, small-area
poverty statistics were increasingly being required
for more directed poverty alleviation targeting
at province or village levels. In that
regard, the Working Group noted that countries
would increasingly require technical assistance
in designing an integrated information system
based on sample surveys, censuses and administrative
reports, as well as in producing poverty maps
utilizing small-area statistics derived from
combining those three data sources.
35. The Working Group also noted the need for
increased use of statistical reasoning and statisticians'
inputs in the design and implementation of poverty
monitoring and evaluation systems, including
the choice of indicators and in reducing the
dimensionality of the list of indicators.
That would require active applied research programmes
in the national statistical systems that would
tell the statisticians more about the properties
of their products, e.g., relative error levels
and relationships among indicators that would
allow informed choices.
IV.
National accounts
36. The Working Group had before it document
STAT/WGSE.12/4 entitled "Proposed Action Plan
on the Implementation of the 1993 System of
National Accounts", prepared by the secretariat.
The paper reviewed the activities undertaken
in the region on national accounts and related
topics which were designed to help countries
in the implementation of the 1993 SNA.
It also provided the status of implementation
of the 1993 SNA of the countries in the ESCAP
region based on a survey conducted by the secretariat.
The Working Group expressed its appreciation
for the comprehensive presentation on the status
of implementation of the 1993 SNA in the region,
as well as for the proposed action plan contained
in the document.
37. The Working Group took note of the problems
and issues raised concerning the implementation
of the 1993 SNA in various workshops and seminars
on national accounts conducted in the
region, and of the recommendations for helping
countries implement the system. It also
agreed with the objective of the proposed action
plan, namely to help the countries in compilation
and dissemination of timely, accurate, reliable
and internationally comparable national accounts
statistics relevant to the needs of the country
and consistent with the recommendations of the
1993 SNA. The Working Group supported
the setting of targets in the action plan, although
it asked that countries of North and Central
Asia should be included among the priority countries,
and proposed to organize a subregional workshop
in collaboration with the Economic Cooperation
Organization (ECO), SIAP and ADB. The
Working Group also requested that the numeric
indicator of 50 per cent in respect of adherence
to the conceptual and methodological recommendations
be reviewed, as the basis for it was not well
explained. A separate paper or forum would be
useful in explaining to the countries how the
evaluation would be carried out.
38. The Working Group fully supported the strategies
and activities of the action plan. It cited
in particular the user-producer workshop on
national accounts to generate user understanding,
acceptance and support of the changes; and maximum
use of administrative-based data to facilitate
the implementation of the 1993 SNA. With high-level
representation to concerned agencies producing
them, limitations of coverage of administrative-based
data could often be overcome. In generating
appreciation and support for the implementation
of national accounts, a simplified and
well written resource kit on the 1993 SNA would
be effective for communicating to policy-makers
and high-level officials.
39. The Working Group also noted other suggestions
that could be considered in finalizing the action
plan. Those included further elaboration of
the manual prepared by the UNSD on non-financial
sector accounts, training of national accounts
staff in handling databases, use of software
for compilation, and the possible development
of a manual or guidebook in measuring the non-observed
economy including illegal activities.
The Working Group also supported the recommendation
to form an association of national accounts
compilers to provide a forum for continuing
discussions on the implementation of the 1993
SNA.
40. The Working Group also heard the experience
of countries in the implementation of the 1993
SNA and the strategies they adopted in promoting
the new sets of estimates through various forums
for users and academicians. It also recognized
the problem of technical assistance to small
island economies where compilation was dependent
upon external consultants. Alternative approaches
should be considered in the action plan to ensure
that compilation would be sustained by the country.
The Working Group also noted the problems encountered
by countries when estimates by multilateral
agency missions of the level and growth rate
of the national accounts statistics differed
from the officially compiled data. The
Working Group also agreed that countries encountered
many problems such as outdated base years, conflicting
levels of subnational and national estimates
of value added, consistency of quarterly estimates
by the production and expenditure approaches,
the treatment of intermediate consumption from
own production in the compilation of input-output
tables, and the treatment of effects of natural
disasters in estimates of GDP. Those problems
could be addressed in workshops to be organized
under the proposed action plan.
41. The Working Group expressed concern over
the possible replacement of the Regional Adviser
on National Accounts by a regional adviser on
poverty statistics. Considering the priority
of national accounts among the ESCAP countries,
the ESCAP Regional Adviser on National Accounts
was crucial in ensuring that the countries had
readily available expertise to assist them in
the implementation of the 1993 SNA and in helping
execute the action plan in the region.
42. The Working Group appreciated the plan
of OECD to provide assistance in conducting
a workshop and follow-up activities on quarterly
national accounts, with possible collaboration
from other donor agencies. In that regard, ADB
informed the Working Group that technical assistance
was available both through the ADB programme
of assistance for individual countries and through
regional technical assistance projects. National
statistical offices would have to formulate
proposals to be included in the programme of
assistance coordinated by the ADB focal point
in the individual countries. ADB headquarters
dealt directly with proposals for regional
technical assistance projects. ASEAN also
indicated its support for the action plan.
43. The Working Group unanimously endorsed
the proposed action plan for the implementation
of the 1993 SNA, amended as necessary in the
light of the Working Group's comments.
It urged the ESCAP secretariat to proceed with
the detailed articulation and implementation
of the action plan.
V.
International comparison programme: plans for
Asia and the Pacific
44. The Working Group had before it document
STAT/WGSE.12/7, prepared by the World Bank.
The paper recapped the objectives, current status
and challenges of the International Comparison
Programme (ICP) and the United Nations Statistical
Commission's call during its thirty-first session
in March 2000 to revamp the ICP, which had been
presented to the Committee on Statistics at
its twelfth session. The paper laid
out the strategy for strengthening the ICP and
building confidence in Purchasing Power Parity
(PPP) data; that would be achieved through the
comprehensive strategic framework developed
by the World Bank, in close collaboration with
other agencies. The new framework incorporated
the widely accepted recommendations of the Ryten
report, and aligned the Programme with the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). The strategy encompassed
building a coalition of stakeholders; mobilizing
a sustained funding base; establishing
a sound governance structure; strengthening
national capacity; maximizing the synergy between
the ICP and national statistical programmes;
integrating poverty-specific PPPs into the mainstream
of ICP; providing incentives for countries to
participate, and promoting wider use of ICP
data. The ICP would provide an information
base for the Millennium Development Goals by
providing timely and reliable data, helping
to improve the allocation of international resources
for poverty reduction, building understanding
of the process of economic change and growth,
and providing the means to monitor progress
or the lack thereof.
45. The Working Group heard that the proposed
comprehensive framework provided for a Global
Governing Body, a Technical Advisory Group and
the establishment of an International Secretariat.
The Global Governing Bodywould consist of representatives
of the United Nations Statistical Commission,
regional agencies and international organizations.
The International Secretariat (Global
Coordinator) would be responsible for: preparing
work plans to be approved by the international
governing body; mobilizing resources; implementing
global programmes and monitoring progress; linking
regional results and generating global PPPs;
analysing and disseminating benchmark results,
and reporting to the stakeholders. The
Working Group noted with interest that some
120 developing countries were listed to participate
in the ICP 2003 span>comparison: 40 in Africa;
27 in Asia-Pacific; 27 in Latin America and
the Caribbean; 12 countries of the Commonwealth
of Independent States, and 12 in Western Asia.
The strategy provided for estimation of PPPs
for GDP both at regional and global levels.
In some countries where statistical systems
had limited capacity, it might be necessary
to concentrate resources on getting good quality
price data for the consumption items only.
46. As far as resource mobilization was concerned,
the Working Group noted that theobjective was
to raise US$14 million, of which the World Bank,
IMF, UNDP and the World Health Organization
(WHO) had agreed to cover 30 per cent.
So far a total of $ 6.2 million had been pledged.
In some instances regional agencies had already
agreed to cover the cost of regional coordination.
Bilateral donors were being approached to fill
the gap. A number of research studies in survey
methods had been commissioned, namely on the
ICP Survey Framework (J. Ryten); Expenditure
Weights (World Bank & IMF); Survey Methods
for Services (World Bank & G. Szilagyi);
Health PPP (Joint Research World Bank/WHO);
Survey Methods for Construction (Urban Development
Group); ICP Data by Regions & Outlets (A.
Heston & M. Ward); PPPs for the Poor (P.
Rao); Integration of ICP and the consumer
price index (CPI) (S. Ahmad) and Integration
of ICP and International Comparisons of Output
and Productivity project (B. van Ark).
47. Two of the pilot studies, by Sultan Ahmad
and Prasada Rao, were being implemented by the
ESCAP secretariat. The two consultants presented
their preliminary findings to the Working Group.
Mr Ahmad said that all four statistical
agencies he had visited - in China, Fiji, Hong
Kong and Malaysia - had regular programmes of
collecting prices, notably for the CPI.
The objective of his study was to make ICP work
more routine by harmonizing ICP with CPI, thus
permitting computation of PPPs regularly in
the most cost-effective manner. He proposed
that all countries needed to provide written
specifications of items and should also retain
details about regions and types of outlets (rural
or urban, poor or affluent neighbourhood, etc.).
Comparability might be enhanced if those details
were preserved for further analysis; regression
techniques were available to produce results
using all observations if the details were available.
Mr Ahmad would identify gaps between the requirements
of ICP and what was available in the CPI and
would suggest technical solutions to maximize
overlap in a cost-effective
manner. He also noted that countries might benefit
from the use of handheld computers for
data collection.
48. Mr Prasada Rao reported that the objective
of his pilot project was to assess the feasibility
of calculating PPPs for poverty measurement,
on the basis of visits to India, Indonesia,
the Philippines and Thailand. He currently
thought that there were two approaches: (a)
investigate the feasibility of identifying
a consumption bundle for the poor or (b) examine
the possibility of obtaining some adjustment
factors that could be applied to general PPPs.
During the course of the next two to three months
he would evaluate those alternative methods
of computing PPPs for poverty studies. He also
reported to the Working Group that the national
statistical offices he had visited were keen
to have training in the construction of spatial
price indexes, for regional (provincial) price
comparisons.
49. The Working Group stressed that inclusion
of representative national statistical offices
in the membership of the Global Governing Body
would help ensure ownership by governments.
It was noted that strong project management
would be crucial. The Working Group also
felt that the current proposed funding for the
ICP 2003, when spread among all the intended
participating countries, was very low given
the considerable work involved and the technical
difficulties many countries would face.
Problems included a lack of resources to conduct
the several required surveys simultaneously,
and difficulties in communication in large countries.
50. The Working Group noted that the 'OECD'
comparison covered 55 countries and had already
built up expertise on many of the problems that
would be faced in the next ICP round, including
very different consumption patterns, the linking
of regions, and comparison-resistant services.
The Working Group recommended a number of strategies
for improving the quality of ICP data including
(a) first improving the quality of the CPI;
(b) a bottom-up approach which relied on countries
influencing selection of items; (c) making comparisons
on a subregional basis; and (d) use of recent
mathematical developments like spanning trees.
The view was also expressed that the next ICP
round could start with a smaller number of countries,
and with participation staggered over different
years. The Working Group remained of the
opinion that the ICP should cover all components
of GDP, not just consumption.
51. The Working Group recommended that efforts
should be made to secure adequate funding to
ensure that the programme was successful; those
efforts should include additional attempts to
mobilize resources at regional level.
The Asian Development Bank informed the Working
Group that it was very keen to support the next
round of ICP in the region through regional
technical assistance (RETA), and would have
discussions with the World Bank and other agencies.
52. The Working Group observed that 2003 might
be too soon to conduct the next round of ICP.
It was informed that the final decision would
be reached during the Statistical Commission
meeting and ICP Conference in March 2002.
The Working Group felt that while not all elements
were in place to produce perfect ICP data in
the next round, countries should not give up
and that quality would gradually improve, as
it had with statistics in other fields in the
past. The Working Group noted that the
alternative to doing nothing was continued extrapolation
of the poor-quality 1993 PPPs, and/or reliance
on exchange-rate-based comparisons.
VI.
Price statistics
53. The Working Group had before it document
STAT/WGSE.12/8, prepared by the Singapore Department
of Statistics. It presented a summary
of discussions during the International Workshop
on Consumer Price Indices, which had been organized
by the Singapore Department of Statistics and
the OECD from 4 to 8 June 2001 in Singapore.
The objective of the workshop had been to review
the draft of the revised ILO Manual on the Consumer
Price Index (CPI).
54. The Working Group noted with satisfaction
that the editor, authors and the custodian (ILO)
of the Manual had had all the chapters redrafted
taking into account comments made at the Singapore
meeting. In particular, the Manual had
been made more user-friendly by adding important
points (statements and formulas) at the beginning
of the theoretical chapters 3 to 9, and edited
versions of those points would be included in
chapter 10. That chapter would explain
the role of chapters 3 to 9 and emphasize the
need for compilers to have a grasp of basic
index number theory and concepts. A new
chapter on concepts, coverage and classifications
(Chapter 11) had been produced. It explained
in detail exactly how and why the coverage of
CPIs differed from total household consumption
in the SNA, and also the difference between
domestic and national concepts of consumption.
55. In response to requests from participants
at various workshops for more illustrative examples,
the practical part of the Manual would contain
examples relevant for developing countries.
In that regard the Working Group noted with
satisfaction that Hong Kong had already provided
several examples on treatment of specific products,
while the drafters were currently awaiting more
ready-made numerical examples from other statistical
offices. The Working Group commended the
ILO for the way the region's views had been
taken into account in the drafting of the Manual,
and requested other custodians of manuals to
emulate the ILO's approach.
56. The Working Group asked a number of questions
concerning coverage of particular topics or
problems in the Manual. It noted that
it was not too late to let the drafters of the
Manual know what problems countries were facing.
In that vein CPI compilers were encouraged to
send examples of problems that they faced while
including their own suggested solution if available;
the drafters of the Manual could then use those
examples to develop more general problems and
solutions applicable to more situations.
Examples could be sent to Ms Valentine Stoevska
(stoevska@ilo.org)
with a copy to the editor of the Manual, Prof
Peter Hill (peter.hill@flordon.freeserve.co.uk).
The Working Group welcomed the ILO's plan to
establish a website where problems and suggested
solutions could be posted, as that would greatly
facilitate communication among CPI compilers.
57. The Working Group noted that most shops
and supermarkets in developed countries now
used scanners. It however cautioned that
the increase in research in that area should
not lead to less research in practical problems
prevalent in developing countries. The World
Bank informed the Working Group that there was
an annex in the CPI Manual that explained the
conceptual links and feasibility of integrating
CPI and ICP; that in fact was the basis for
the research work currently being undertaken
by one of the consultants working on the ICP.
VII.
Integrated environmental and economic accounting
58. The Working Group was informed about recent
developments in the System of integrated
Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA)
and the outcomes of the meeting of the London
Group on Environmental Accounting, which was
held in Voorburg, the Netherlands from 7 to
11 May 2001.
59. The main purpose of the meeting was to
discuss the draft version of the SEEA 2000 and
the future work of the London Group. The Group
had reviewed the SEEA 2000 revision in order
to clarify its text. It had also agreed that
its work should continue as a forum for exchanging
experiences.
60. The Working Group heard that the thirty-second
session of the Statistical Commission in March
2001 had set up a Friends of the Chair (FoC)
group to review the draft after the London Group
had met, in order to solve outstanding issues
on the draft and steer its progress. The revised
SEEA 2000 would be submitted to the Statistical
Commission for approval in 2002 and thereafter
would be jointly published by the United Nations,
the World Bank, OECD and the Statistical Office
of the European Communities (EUROSTAT).
61. The Group heard with interest that Mongolia
had already initiated the task of compiling
natural resources accounting over the past years,
with work on land/soil, mineral and forest resources
accounting and associated valuation techniques.
The Operational Manual of Integrated Environmental
and Economic Accounting had been found very
useful in providing step-by-step guidance on
how to compile environmental and natural resource
accounting, even though Mongolia faced shortcomings
such as lack of data collection capacity, poor
quality of available statistics, and lack of
expertise. It was suggested that ESCAP
and other international organizations establish
regional and subregional coordination machanisms
to assist countries in implementing environmental
accounts.
VIII.
Measuring the knowledge-based economy
62. At the request of the twelfth session
of the Committee on Statistics, the Working
Group reviewed recent global and regional developments
on the development of statistical standards
for measuring the information society, and reviewed
a draft framework for measuring the knowledge-based
society. The former was based on a secretariat
note (STAT/WGSE.12/5) and the latter on the
document entitled "A statistical framework for
measuring knowledge in the Australian economy
and society" (STAT/WGSE.12/6) contributed by
the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The Working Group noted that the topic was a
designated priority in the statistics subprogramme
and contributed directly to 'managing globalization',
one of the three themes proposed in the ESCAP
revitalization process.
63. At the outset, the Working Group expressed
appreciation to the Australian Bureau of Statistics
for sharing the draft framework and welcomed
its intention to share the final version through
the Internet in early 2002. The Working
Group noted that under discussion was an emerging
area of statistics, which required further conceptual,
methodological and empirical work from the global
statistical community.
64. The Working Group recommended that statistical
offices should improve their capabilities in
measuring the information society in response
to increasing demand for related indicators.
The requests for data came from various user
groups and served a range of purposes, including
government policy formulation, business development,
public information and international comparison.
65. While appreciating the comprehensive coverage
of documents STAT/WGSE.12/5 and STAT/WGSE.12/6,
the Working Group recommended that statistical
offices should use a pragmatic and incremental
approach in that work, which was commensurate
with their resources. Starting with a
limited set of indicators, such as those related
to the infrastructure, production and use of
information and communication technologies (ICT),
was an approach which had successfully been
tried during the past few years in a number
of developed countries. The development
of indicators and statistics on the information
society and the knowledge-based economy could
be attempted as skills and national data collection
methods improved.
66. The Working Group noted that the ability
to measure the rapid ICT evolution and the impact
it caused on society was a major challenge for
official statistical systems. Innovations
and technology improvements effectively shortened
the life spans of products and services, which
created difficulties in their statistical classification,
in price monitoring and in separation of price
changes from quality improvements (quality adjustment
of price deflators). Another difficulty
was to keep up with the emergence and decline
of enterprises; practically no sampling frame
was likely to be fully representative at the
time of enumeration.
67. The Working Group noted that the development
of national capacity was not limited to the
compilation of indicators on the information
society; it also covered consideration of the
impact of ICT on conventional statistics, including
national accounts and leading economic indicators.
In that regard, the Working Group observed that
the 2002 update of the International Standard
Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities
(ISIC), which was for the most part emanating
from the need to reflect the information society
better, was likely to affect conventional statistics.
68. The Working Group took note of the development
of standards in OECD and other countries and
noted the role of key players and international
collaboration in that regard. It welcomed
the international efforts to develop model questionnaires
for e?commerce and for the use of ICT in various
sectors, and was looking forward to their release
to the public.
69. The Working Group emphasized the importance
of developing explicit definitions and unambiguous
terminology and of improving statistical classifications
of economic activities, occupations, and products
and services in order to facilitate measurement
of the information society. Sound concepts
and common standards were crucial for the international
comparability of related indicators. The
Working Group expressed the wish that the United
Nations would assume a more visible role in
the development of statistical standards for
the measurement of the information society and
knowledge-based economy.
70. The Working Group noted that the framework
for measuring knowledge in the Australian economy
and society, as well as the frameworks it was
building on (the OECD Growth Project and the
APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) framework
towards knowledge-based economies), were based
on the assumption that knowledge-based economies
were in a superior position to generate economic
growth and well-being for people. The
Working Group agreed that moving from measuring
the information society to measuring the knowledge-based
society added complexity and subjectivity to
the process.
71.The Working Group observed that the ABS
framework included five dimensions, each having
a number of characteristics, which were to be
measured by a number of indicators. The
dimensions were (i) innovation and entrepreneurship,
(ii) human and social capital, (iii) the role
of ICT, (iv) fundamentals of economy, society
and environment, and (v) economic and social
impacts. The expected outputs from the
framework could be compendia of statistical
indicators, thematic publications, and a directory
of sources. The Working Group heard that
the development of the framework, especially
the selection of indicators, was based on pragmatic
considerations and that its eventual usefulness
could only be known after practical work was
completed and feedback was received from users.
In a broader context, the Working Group noted
that in order for a framework to contribute
to statistical progress, it did not need to
provide answers to all the questions; apart
from supporting conceptual and information development,
frameworks were useful in identifying data gaps.
72. The Working Group observed that the ABS
framework was comprehensive and required a substantial
amount of data compilation. A point
was made that a dimension capturing the democratic
and political aspect of the knowledge-based
society and including indicators on mass media
might be added to the framework. Another suggestion
was made to choose a subset of the indicators
on the basis of how well they explained the
impact of ICT and knowledge on society.
73. The Working Group recommended that when
developing statistics on the information society,
statistical offices should hold consultations
with data users and consider the data providers'
ability to respond to dedicated surveys; they
should also keep in mind practical and legal
constraints that limited the supply of data
from administrative and electronic records.
Noting the difficulties in obtaining information
on ICT expenditures from enterprises and the
public sector, the Working Group recommended
verifying the reliability of collected data
through standard statistical practices, such
as post-enumeration surveys.
74. As politicians and decision makers tended
to pay great attention to the economic impact
of ICT, such as how much it contributed to GDP,
economic growth and productivity, the Working
Group cautioned statistical offices not to ignore
measurement of social aspects of the information
society, including access and participation
of all groups in the population. It advised
statistical offices to review whether new modes
of interaction, such as the rapidly burgeoning
short messaging through mobile phones, were
adequately covered in national data collection
frameworks.
75. While noting that for many countries statistics
on the information society were only starting
to assume priority, the Working Group welcomed
the secretariat's initiatives to obtain resources
for building national capacities on the measurement
of the information society in developing countries.
The sharing and studying of experiences of other
countries was a useful way to start. The
borrowed models could be adapted to local circumstances
and circulated for comments from data providers,
data users and national and international experts.
The Working Group advised that assistance by
any donor should be geared towards the development
of sustainable data collection methods; funding
one-off surveys without a plan to develop and
reuse the frame later could be counter-productive.
76. The Working Group reviewed the dimensions
and indicators used to compile the Technology
Achievement Index (TAI) in the 2001 UNDP Human
Development Report. Many reservations
were expressed regarding the dimensions, the
selection of indicators and weights, and the
qualitative statements made about the index.
The Working Group asked the members of the Statistical
Advisory Panel from the region to continue monitoring
the composite indices that would appear in future
Human Development Reports.
IX.
Coordination of development indicators
77. The Working Group discussed the item on
the basis of document STAT/WGSE.12/9, to which
was annexed the final report of the "Friends
of the Chair" expert group formed by the United
Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) to address
problems related to development indicators.
78. The Working Group was invited to express
its comments on the report of the "Friends of
the Chair", in particular on the recommendations,
in order to convey its views to the next session
of the United Nations Statistical Commission,
to be held in New York in March 2002. The Working
Group recognized the need for and strongly supported
the efforts at the rationalization and reduction
of development indicators made by the "Friends
of the Chair". It praised the report as the
first available document that provided not only
a clear picture of the status of development
indicators, but also a good guide for countries
in building up their statistical capacity. The
Working Group appreciated the adoption of the
three tiers for identifying the priority of
indicators. It emphasized that those indicators
were coordinated and that the effort of rationalization
should be a continuing process, to be extended
further to other areas of official statistics.
It encouraged countries to continue to provide
their inputs into the process, and hoped that
all concerned international agencies could be
present to discuss the issues involved at the
next session of the Statistical Commission.
79. Among all the recommendations of the "Friends
of the Chair", the Working Group agreed particularly
on the need to continue and further strengthen
the programmes aimed at building up the statistical
capacity of national statistical offices in
developing countries. It was recognized that
indicators belonging to the first tier of the
list identified by the "Friends of the Chair"
were not so numerous; a suggestion was made
that, assuming adequate funding support were
available, countries could use multi-scope surveys,
with sample sizes adequate for small-area estimates,
in order to produce those indicators.
80. While noting that statistical capacity-building
initiatives should be addressed to develop the
basic statistics that underpinned development
indicators, the Working Group raised doubts
of relevance and validity about an indicator
to measure the statistical capacity of countries.
The Working Group felt that such an indicator
would be very difficult to design, and its possible
role and uses were not clear to many countries.
Additionally, it was argued that similar experiences,
such as that of setting up the "milestones"
assessment system in measuring the implementation
of the 1993 System of National Accounts, had
experienced serious drawbacks, and ran into
the risk of labelling, ranking, or marking countries
in statistical terms. The Working Group therefore
could not support the "Friends of the Chair"
recommendation that the United Nations Statistical
Commission develop and monitor a statistical
indicator of national statistical capacity.
The Working Group highlighted the fact that
the statistical offices of the regional commissions
were in the best position to know which statistical
information was or was not available in countries.
Therefore, the regional commissions had a role
in assisting countries in understanding the
uses of development indicators and in the compilation
of indicators that otherwise would not be computed.
81. The Working Group noted that the quality
of statistics disseminated at international
level depended mainly on that available at national
level. It also noted that countries often needed
support from international organizations in
setting up national statistical coordination
mechanisms that could help to improve quality,
avoid duplication, and eliminate inconsistencies
among national sources. The Working Group noted
some cases when, although national statistical
offices usually had the responsibility of dealing
with international organizations in the provision
of statistical data, they were not supported
by other government agencies in that task. That
caused a problem to national statistical agencies
either when only limited human resources could
be assigned to the task, or when in decentralized
statistical systems data were not available
to national statistical offices but only to
other agencies. High-level involvement was required
to ensure that appropriate cooperation in handling
requests from international organizations was
forthcoming.
82. While the Working Group appreciated that
the discussion on development indicators was
taking place within the United Nations Statistical
Commission, it was concerned that the Statistical
Commission could lose its prime role of being
the principal forum where statistical issues
were discussed at global level. The concern
originated from the observation that several
discussions on statistical issues were tending
to shift from the Statistical Commission to
other forums. In particular, it was noted how
several donor-driven initiatives, such as the
World Development Indicators of the World Bank,
the Human Development Index of UNDP, or the
latest Data Quality Assessment Framework (DQAF)
of the International Monetary Fund, were becoming
authoritative sources or guidelines in official
statistics. The Working Group affirmed that
the United Nations Statistical Commission should
remain the apex body for global discussions
and norm setting in official statistics.
83. Additional concern was expressed on the
increased use by donor agencies of the so-called
Participatory Poverty Assessments, generally
conducted through interviews of focus groups.
The Working Group noted that that type of survey
was cheap and quick to implement, and thus had
become very popular, especially for programme
managers of donor agencies. However, it was
also noted that such surveys were neither replicable
nor statistically valid. The Working Group therefore
suggested that the data from those surveys should
be taken, at best, as supplementary to those
produced through traditional surveys; they should
not replace them.
X.
Implications for statistical work in the region
of possible revised conference, programme and
secretariat structures of ESCAP
84. The Working Group considered the item
on the basis of secretariat document STAT/WGSE.12/10
and a draft concept paper on the secretariat's
revitalization effort entitled "Focusing ESCAP's
Programme", which was available as background
document STAT/WGSE.12/CRP.1. The Working
Group also had before it the report of the Bureau
(STAT/WGSE.12/14), recording the Bureau's views
on the matter.
85. The Working Group fully endorsed the views
of the Bureau and expressed its unanimous support
for the retention of the Committee on Statistics
as a principal subsidiary body of the Commission.
It requested the Bureau to reflect its position
in the meeting with the Executive Secretary
on 30 November 2001.
86. While the proposed themes (poverty reduction,
managing globalization and emerging social issues)
could be valuable in the strategic programming
of the Commission, the Working Group felt that
confining its statistical work to any single
one of the themes would be detrimental to regional
capacity building and coordination, the main
thrust of the statistics subprogramme.
The Committee and the statistics subprogramme
should continue to be broad in scope, ranging
over all three themes that had been identified
(and even beyond). In expressing satisfaction
with the work of the secretariat, the Working
Group agreed that ESCAP had a unique role in
statistics that no other agency could as effectively
and impartially fulfill.
87. The Working Group recalled that ESCAP provided
a forum for sharing of experiences on statistical
issues. On a number of fundamental statistical
development issues, the Committee on Statistics
had formulated regional views, which had been
presented to the United Nations Statistical
Commission, the main forum for setting international
statistical standards. ESCAP had also
played a very useful role in communicating and
promoting international statistical standards
in the region, often in cooperation with intergovernmental
agencies such as ADB, OECD, SPC, ECO and ASEAN.
The Working Group felt that the track record
of the | 
