S IGMA 1/2002 Contents 1

Page 4: Pascal Lamy on how to get the best out of globalisation

Page 6: Erkki Liikanen on quality and speed in statistics Page 26: Enrico Giovannini – thinking globally

Our news: Fons Theis changes horizons Page 21: Bettina Knauth explains FATS Page 48: Introducing Adelheid Bürgi-Schmelz

SIGMA COMMENT Enterprise groups: a hard FOCUS ON NSIs Our news nut to crack open 19 Statistics go global 2 Census goes online Fons Theis, who has substantial- … finds Eurostat's Arto Luhtio 40 Eurostat Director-General Yves Franchet Gustav Haraldsen and Coen Hendriks ly shaped the character and look opens the issue A driving force for invite fellow Norwegians to surf of Sigma over the past six years, the integration of waved farewell to Eurostat at the SIGMA THEME the world's economies 21 Taking a picture of Hungary's society 42 beginning of this year. But he is Bettina Knauth of Eurostat elucidates for- STATISTICS AND GLOBALISATION Gábor Rózsa, Central Statistical Office eign affiliates statistics only a short walk away in his of Hungary, on their census new job as Director of the Getting the best out Globalisation at European Commission of globalisation 4 Vikings launch a joint the service of growth 24 Representation in Luxembourg – a By Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy plan of attack 44 by Anne-Christine Strandell Heli Jeskanen-Sundström, Director- function that he had already held Putting e into statistics 6 of Sweden's ITPS General of Statistics Finland, about the from 1990 to 1995 before get- By Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, Nordic Strategy Group ting into the driving seat of infor- responsible for Enterprise "Fortune smiles on the mation and communication at and Information Society best prepared" 26 "All change please" for inter- modal transport statistics 46 Eurostat. Enrico Giovannini, OECD's Chief Steering world trade through Statistician, on the OECD's work Kerstin Forssén about a new survey at the ocean of globalisation 8 Statistics Sweden Philippe Bautier, at Eurostat The WTO's Patrick Low on how How can FDI help us? 29 since 1990 and in the Press the WTO fits in It's never too early Eurostat's Paolo Passerini introduces Office since 1999, takes the to start learning statistics 47 FDI statistics baton from Fons Theis. His goal: Having a say in INSEE’s André de los Santos on their the rules of the game 11 public outreach initiative continue to make Sigma the ideal Dr Paul Rübig, MEP, on how SMEs LOOKING EASTWARDS companion for understanding 'mean business' New hand at the wheel what's going on in the European A new series of profiles presenting of Swiss Statistics 48 Statistical System, from statistical Putting solidarity the statistical offices of the Candidate Adelheid Bürgi-Schmelz – first woman into globalisation 13 to steer Statistics Switzerland themes to the movers and shak- Countries Françoise Le Bail, Director at DG Trade, ers. With the challenges of on globalisation and statistics Statistics Poland – FOCUS ON EUROSTAT enlargement, globalisation and ready for take-off 31 Trade as the motor Catching up with questions of global governance, Barbara Jakob paid a visit to Tadeusz of globalisation 15 Uncle Sam … 49 new technologies, short-term sta- Toczynski, President of GUS Denis Leythienne of Eurostat on the cen- … for short-term statistics tistics, to name a handful, there tral role of trade will be no difficulty making Sigma No learned person New legal clout an interesting read in the years to Climbing aboard the falls from the sky 35 for Community Marie Bohatá, President of the Czech come. The rest of the Sigma team same globalisation train … 17 Statistical Programme 51 Istat's Enrica Morganti – solidarity for a Statistical Office, on how Czech statis- New Community Statistical welcomes him. Herculean task tics have been shaken up Programme 2003-2007 in the offing Editorial S IGMA 1/2002 2 Statistics go global

ardly a day goes past alisation’ impacts on many the need for statistics on the role act globally, statisticians will Hwithout globalisation areas of our lives. Hence, it of SMEs, a subject that Dr Paul be asked to do the same. issues in the news. Yet, not all is legitimate for policy-mak- Rübig picks up in his interview. This challenge, which hits the the references are glowingly ers to call for statistics that current system of statistical positive. What is seen as an help them formulate policies The chief challenge in this reporting at its heart, has the opportunity by some, is per- in the light of globalisation. respect, however, is integrat- potential of inducing a para- ceived as a threat by others. But globalisation is not only ing these different statistical digm shift for statistical However, what unites both a phenomenon to be meas- areas, which have developed reporting. sides is the conclusion that ured in its own right; it is side by side for many years, globalisation exists and that it also a phenomenon that will each with their own logic. The A first step might be a move matters – that it matters for influence the statistical sys- new common aim of contribut- from a statistical reporting everybody, be it governments, tem itself, where it might ing to the joint measurement system based on enterprises economic actors or individu- induce similar structural of globalisation suddenly turns or even smaller units to one als. And it also matters for stat- changes as in our economies those initially distinct areas based on larger units such as isticians who will need to and societies. into related areas of statistics. enterprise groups and, in adapt their production systems And this creates a need for particular, trans-national ent- to this new phenomenon. Meaningful common concepts, definitions erprise groups – important and nomenclatures for draw- actors in the globalisation But what is exactly meant by statistics about ing up a consistent statistical process. globalisation? Just like the globalisation portrait of globalisation. This term ‘new economy’, ‘globali- need for integration will Next, the relevance of the sation’ is used to describe an Initially, the appearance of a require significant coordina- principle of residence as important structural change in new policy-relevant phenome- tion that will not leave the orig- opposed to nationality could the world’s economies for non simply calls for its meas- inal areas unaffected. be brought into question. which it is difficult to agree on urement in statistical terms. As Can reporting on internation- a definition sufficiently exact far as globalisation is con- Beyond the measurement of the al transactions continue to be to please a statistician. cerned, its measurement can extent of globalisation lies the based on the principle of res- rely on a number of existing analysis of its impact – carried idence in the light of transfer It is the shorthand expression approaches that have formed out by researchers all over the pricing used in intra-firm for a bundle of phenomena part of the statistical appara- world (see also the article by trade? And what about statis- that result from the opening of tus for many years. The extent Anne-Christine Strandell). It will tics on growth and productiv- markets and lead to a consid- of globalisation can thus be be up to the dialogue with this ity in the light of production erable increase in the level of determined by statistics relat- research community to further processes split across differ- integration and interrelation of ing to external trade, foreign refine the need for basic statistics ent countries? Or as a gener- national economies. In this direct investment as well as that are able to contribute to the al question: Do we need to respect, the process of EU inte- business statistics. The contri- analysis of the globalisation change the current statistical gration can be seen as an bution from Enrica Morganti process. output due to the bias gener- example of globalisation on a and the four contributions from ated by globalisation? reduced scale. The process of Eurostat colleagues describe Meaningful globalisation has currently the different angles of globali- All these questions call for been accelerated by the politi- sation that standard statistical statistics despite more dialogue with existing cal will to liberalise markets tools can address. globalisation users to determine what would and facilitated by the avail- constitute meaningful statistics ability of powerful information To fulfil this new aim of capturing The measurement of globali- despite globalisation. and communication technolo- the globalisation process ade- sation is only one of the gies that enable communica- quately, these tools are currently impacts of globalisation on Globalised tion beyond the boundaries of in the process of being adapted statistics. A far more impor- space and time. and refined. And more work lies tant one stems from the fact statistics? ahead to respond to further that increasing globalisation Challenges for requests from users, such as the will call into question the rel- The paradigm shift is likely to go need for statistics on services evance of statistics that rep- even further and has the poten- statistics … and on the modalities of interna- resent a reality truncated by tial of giving a new meaning to The structural change tional integration, two areas of national borders. At a time the term ‘EU statistics’. When described by the term ‘glob- concern for Françoise Le Bail or when enterprises think and national allocation of data S IGMA 1/2002 Editorial 3

becomes meaningless, EU statis- laboration of different The changes brought about alised statistics. And as far as tics obtain a value in their own actors, but also the by globalisation are likely to other international actors right, over and above an aggre- exchange of their data, con- lead to a call for extended agree (see the interview with gation of national data. This will cerns about statistical confi- collaboration and harmoni- Enrico Giovannini), this dream not only necessitate increased dentiality will take the spot- sation beyond the bound- may well come true. efforts concerning consolidation, light again. The need for aries of the European Union. but will give a new role to meaningful statistics about Thus, Eurostat’s current All in all, we could see glob- Eurostat. globalisation and despite efforts in building a wider alisation as a blessing in dis-

When the phenomena under observation are international “The measurement in nature, the corresponding statistical system is best locat- of globalisation is ed at an international level. When individual Member only one of the States have only a partial impacts of globalisa- view of the reality, we obvi- ously need an intrinsically tion on statistics.” international approach. It is therefore not surprising to hear calls for the establish- ment of a business register of European enterprise groups, nor demands for Eurostat to collect data on enterprise groups directly. … and opportunities

Clearly, globalisation throws up a great many challenges for statisticians. But these challenges also offer a host of opportunities for the European Statistical System and its members to seize.

As the statistical measure- ment of globalisation is in its infancy in most Member States, the joint development of concepts, definitions, nomenclatures and data col- lection tools provides an opportunity for fruitful collab- oration within the European Statistical System.

Moreover, since the phe- nomena under observation globalisation should feed statistical system in collabo- guise, providing a catalyst for are essentially international into the discussion about the ration with other internation- ushering in a statistical system in nature, there is further significance of statistical al actors and, in particular, fit for the third millennium. scope for developing the confidentiality and of with the OECD and the European Statistical System acknowledging the privi- United Nations will receive through joint projects. As leged role of statisticians in more impetus and have the Yves Franchet those joint projects are likely the use of confidential data potential of resulting – one Director-General to require not only the col- – even across borders. day – in a system of glob- Eurostat Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 4

Trade has been a key pillar in the EU since the Community’s first founda- tions were cemented into place. And with globalisation rapidly penetrat- ing almost every nook and cranny of our lives, it continues to stand high on the horizon. As the Commissioner for trade, PASCAL LAMY has the task of carving a place for EU trade policy in the world trade architec- ture. He answers Sigma’s questions … Getting the best out of globalisation

he buzzword ‘globalisation’ specialisation and competition. against globalisation/liberali- ment, if it is not translated into Tis tripping off tongues every- The continued process of glob- sation – which rarely distinguish investments in infrastructure, where. Although there is noth- alisation has prompted cost between these two concepts – is education, etc., which will ing new about this phenome- reductions, rising levels of pro- mainly based on considerations themselves create the basis for non, it is increasingly dominat- ductivity, and greater consumer that globalisation implies rais- sustainable development. ing public discussion. What is it choice. The process has also ing inequalities and environ- really about? provided a major driving force mental risks as well as on con- In fact, there is a growing reali- behind the economic growth cerns about a race to the bot- sation that if globalisation is to Globalisation refers to the that has raised living standards tom as far as social protection support sustainable develop- process of world-wide integra- across the world. standards are concerned. ment, it must strike a balance tion of markets, through the between the three inter-related increasing volume and variety Since 1960, world trade has Economic growth and rising objectives of stable economic of cross-border transactions in increased fifteen-fold and the prosperity have been particu- growth, social development goods and services and of inter- per capita incomes of the larly marked in those countries and environmental protection. national capital flows, and world’s population have dou- whose economic policies have This is a key policy objective for through the more rapid and bled. Over the past decade, been geared towards greater the Commission, in both our widespread diffusion of tech- trade has increased twice as interaction in the global econo- internal and external policies nology and ideas. It is mainly fast as output, FDI three times as my. In recent years, some East and in the broader international driven by technology and by fast and cross-border trade in Asian economies have enjoyed context, for example through the actions of individual eco- shares ten times as fast. double-digit rates of growth in our contribution to the forth- nomic actors. merchandise trade and equiva- coming World Summit on Striking the balance lently high levels of output Sustainable Development in Although it is true that this is growth. However, others – sub- Johannesburg. not a new phenomenon – for Why is globalisation perceived Saharan Africa, in particular – instance, at the beginning of as something threatening? have fared less well. the 20th century the world Have our politicians been Managing was already highly integrat- focussing too much on econom- As illustrated by the fact that globalisation ed in terms of trade and ic aspects? What conclusions foreign direct investment (FDI) investment levels – the depth has the Commission drawn flows only to a limited number How does the Commission plan of integration today and the from the backlash against glob- of countries, ‘globalisation’ is in to make globalisation both rapidity of its evolution, is alisation? fact not a ‘global’ phenome- socially fair and sustainable for quite unique. non: interdependence is grow- people in industrialised and The trend towards increasing ing only between certain developing countries alike? Globalisation has acted as a international interdependence regions/countries, with others powerful factor for enhancing is generating not only winners being left out because they can- Globalisation is not a panacea global welfare through efficien- but also losers, as the capabili- not muster the degree of sophis- for the world’s problems. cy gains (better allocation of ty of countries and of individu- tication and good governance Globalisation has brought resources) arising from access als to exploit the opportunities necessary for integration into many benefits, but also to foreign capital, technology provided by globalisation dif- the world economy. GDP increased risks. The challenge transfer, greater international fers. The popular backlash growth does not equal develop- is to maximise the former, while S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 5

minimising the latter. To achieve FDI statistics are also taking this, a balance must be struck on increasing importance in between market capitalism and the context of globalisation. governance – at global and Relatively detailed FDI statis- domestic level. In order to tics are assembled by some ensure that globalisation is both regional organisations (eg. for effective and fair, it must be Latin America), but more controlled and managed. detailed statistics would be Therefore, we need to move useful for all world regions. towards a strong, innovative Much of this detailed informa- system of global governance – tion is not easily collectable towards a situation where we from national statistics, but will can start to harness and steer have to be obtained from data the process of globalisation sources that cover individual onto the right path. companies.

For this to happen, trade poli- As globalisation progresses, cy must reflect change and one should not forget that should be an instrument for international trade in services change. This is why the EU is is taking on increasing impor- engaged in an open trade tance. Unfortunately, the statis- strategy, the core of which is tical coverage of trade in serv- the progressive removal of ices is still in its infancy. obstacles to trade, together Improvements are planned for with the non-discriminatory the future, but again such data and transparent management will continue to be very diffi- of trade rules and the peaceful cult to obtain from national settlement of disputes. data sources.

Towards global Nationally-based statistical economic needed. The EU, with our And the statistical systems form the basis for the OECD partners, needs to provision of most statistics governance deliver in terms of market input available today. This is unlike- What is global governance? opening, public and private ly to change in the near future What are the shortcomings of financing and innovative And finally, what kind of statisti- and much has indeed been the present international sys- approaches to environmental, cal system does globalisation achieved through the provi- tem? How do you envisage a health and consumer protec- call for? Is our current national- sion of harmonised national future system of global gover- tion. This will involve difficult ly-based system equipped to statistics. nance? And what role would trade-offs and transitional answer global questions? the EU play in this new interna- adjustment costs. Nevertheless, there are areas tional order? Globalisation is driven to a where it would be useful to sup- Furthermore, a global econo- large degree by multinational plement these statistics, on a Certainly, if globalisation is to my calls for a forum of global enterprises, with subsidiaries case-by-case basis, with survey- be sustainable, we need to economic governance, which and affiliates in many countries type information collected on a strengthen the three pillars of is inclusive and representative. around the world. These large global basis from the main mar- global governance – trade, A first step towards the international groups trade not ket players. This should be finance and norm-setting. The Economic and Social Security only with other companies, but increasingly possible in those developed world, where Council advocated by to a large degree with compa- areas where the international resources and capacity are con- Jacques Delors could be a nies forming part of the same differences in statistical treat- centrated, has a key role to more representative G8, sim- group. International trade sta- ment are small. Further play in providing the lion’s ilar to that proposed by Guy tistics need to be able to cap- advances in the world-wide share of the political and finan- Verhofstadt last year, com- ture the trade flows within harmonisation of accounting cial support, which a concerted prising large actors or such large groups. This infor- norms will certainly help in strategy will require. regional groupings (EU, mation will allow a more thor- this respect. NAFTA, ASEAN, China, ough evaluation of the bene- However, all countries need to India, Japan etc.) together fits of globalisation, and facili- In a word, we need all the best contribute to achieve this goal with representatives of key con- tate the development of meas- quality statistics we can lay our – including the poorest, where stituencies such as Africa and ures to counter potentially hands on for tomorrow’s EU far-reaching reforms may be the Mediterranean region. harmful side-effects. trade policy. Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 6

ERKKI LIIKANEN, Member of the European Commission responsible for Enterprise and Information Society, presents the role of the information society in globalisation and policy measures to support a sustainable devel- opment of this process. He explains how statistics can contribute. Putting e into statistics lobalisation and the “… it might be Ginformation society are closely linked. The information better to dispose of society does not know any 90% quality data borders. Firstly, because it is often impossible to tell when after three months or whether information has than of 100% crossed a physical border – quality after three where exactly is that web page you have just been visit- years.” ing? Secondly, because knowledge is connected infor- mation. The more information you connect, the greater is the knowledge you create. In a networked economy, the opti- mal size of the network is therefore infinite – which means, to all practical purpos- es, global.

Beyond not knowing any bor- ders in the realm of pure infor- mation and communication, the information society also makes borders less important for mate- rial things. For example, it makes goods tradable that pre- viously were not, mostly by reducing transaction costs. Online one can easily read a However, this is where all the already come to Europe, we In all of these fields, it will be newspaper in Chile or strands come together. And in need to speed up the devel- important to ensure that the Australia, which offline would so far as the Internet is an opments in order not to lag benefits accrue to all citizens, have been prohibitively expen- open network of networks, it is behind other regions in the ie. that inclusiveness is sive. One can order goods that a concept, not a particular world. To this effect, we ensured. eGovernment clearly could have been traded, but the technology. Whatever new launched in 1999 the must be addressed to all citi- existence of which was technology comes along, all eEurope 2002 action plan. zens, but eBusiness, too, can unknown to most potential cus- you have to do is connect it to Following the success of this only become an efficient way tomers. Finally, thanks to auto- the existing networks, and it is exercise, the Commission has of increasing productivity and matic translation tools, one can part of the Internet. The princi- just been asked by the hence well-being if all the cus- overcome – albeit with limited ple of the Internet can never Barcelona European Council tomers are online. Or take the quality – linguistic barriers. become obsolete. to propose a new action plan new Internet protocol, Ipv6: as with the time horizon of long as only parts of the net- The key element in these Towards 2005. The new plan will deal work are upgraded, the entire effects is the Internet. Clearly, with a more limited number network is slowed down. the information society should new horizons of issues such as security, not be limited to the Internet: broadband, eGovernment, Clearly, upgrading Europe to information technology can Although many of the benefits eBusiness, contents and inclu- eEurope, ie. an economy in also be powerful offline. of the information society have siveness. which any transaction can be S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 7

made online, because compa- take place within their own At the Okinawa Summit of July fairly simple primary indica- nies and citizens all have easy national boundaries. We 2000, the G8 created a tors, such as Internet penetra- access to the networks, will should face the fact that many ‘Digital Opportunity Task tion and the number of schools require large investments, SMEs still do not feel they can Force’, which has charted the with an Internet connection. from business, governments benefit commercially from par- roles and responsibilities of They are necessarily limited in and consumers alike. Yet, ticipating in e-business at all, the various actors in creating their scope, measuring infra- spending on information and let alone outside their own digital opportunities for all. A structure development and communication technologies country. UN ICT Task Force has been prices much better than more (ICT) will be highly profitable. created as a practical step to diffuse structural change in Certainly, as far as businesses Another feature of ICTs is their develop effective partnerships business practices. But they are concerned, all available potential to underpin sustain- with the private sector, civil give a clear overview of the evidence points to a strong able development. While the society and other relevant developments in the target correlation between ICT quantitative effects are measur- stakeholders. areas of eEurope 2002. spending and increased pro- able in terms of economic ductivity and competitiveness. development, more research is The EU has set up dialogues That, of course, is the key needed to improve the assess- and cooperation programmes issue for policy-making: statis- ment of the environmental and on the information society with tical analysis is a tool to Down with social impact of ICT. This is a emerging countries from the describe reality in such a way the barriers key element of the Commis- Mediterranean, Latin America as to be able to make, adapt sion’s priorities in 2002. and Asia. ICTs should not be or fine-tune policy. However, the take-up of e-busi- considered in isolation, but as ness by SMEs (small and medi- It is also interesting to note that part and parcel of an overall Consequently, the analysis um-sized enterprises) in companies in Europe are development strategy and the must be adapted to the policy. Europe remains very limited. increasingly reporting on the policy dialogue with benefici- This requirement notably SMEs generate a substantial so-called “triple bottom line” – ary countries. implies trade-offs between fea- share of GDP and are a key environmental, social and eco- tures. For example, quality source of new jobs. To make nomic sustainability. It is also must be matched against time- European SMEs fully commit- clear that the digital economy Statistics pivotal liness. It is clear that thorough ted to using the Internet as a can provide better, faster infor- preparation and very careful leading-edge business tool, mation which would allow, for Given all these consequences work produces the best results, we must remove obstacles to example, companies to bec- of ICTs for society at large, it is but it also takes the most time. the development of the digital ome more competitive by imperative to be able to meas- Yet, data about Internet in economy and help SMEs to reducing their energy costs ure progress. However, meas- schools which are more than become more competitive by and consumption in manage- uring the information society six months old are hardly doing business electronically. ment of production processes, presents some considerable usable any more for policy for- This involves notably the management of buildings, challenges to statistical mulation. In such a situation, it removal of legal and regulato- travel and the operation of ICT description. might be better to dispose of ry barriers to e-business and equipment etc. 90% quality data after three addressing the ICT and e-busi- Firstly, the role of intangibles, months than of 100% quality ness skills gap. About the traditionally a difficult field for data after three years. economic evaluation, is much E-business is also a potential ‘digital divide’ bigger in the knowledge-based To conclude, statistical gateway for SMEs to take sectors than in the traditional analysis of the results of our advantage of opportunities in Internationally, ICTs offer both economy. policy will remain a key global markets. It has the challenges and promises for input into the policy process. potential to sweep away the the world’s poorest countries. Secondly, data collection can Indeed, as the measurables barriers between SMEs and They offer enormous opportu- only be carried out once it is – the policy goals – become their customers and give SMEs nities for sustainable local known which data are signifi- more difficult to assess, the the chance to form cross-bor- wealth creation. On the other cant and which are not. Yet, the process of analysis becomes der partnerships more easily. hand, ICTs might result in a speed of technological and increasingly important. marginalisation of the poor economic development is such Recent evidence1, however, and disaffected. The term ‘dig- that by the time a set of data showed that even in EU coun- ital divide’ indicates that not has been identified as signifi- 1. EU survey conducted in 13 Member tries where SMEs use e-busi- everybody necessarily bene- cant, it is already on the verge States, and sponsored by DG Enterprise. Between November ness most commonly, the fig- fits from these revolutionary of becoming obsolete again. 2000 and June 2001, 100 000 enter- ures remain fairly low. In addi- changes. There may be a prises with at least 10 employees tion, for those SMEs who do wide gap between those who This is why – for the bench- were surveyed. Except for Germany (retail and wholesale trade, restau- engage in e-business transac- have access to ICTs and those marking of eEurope 2002 – rant and catering sectors), it covered tions the majority of their sales who have not. we have focused on a set of all economic sectors. Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 8

The term ‘globalisation’ has acquired considerable emotive force recently. While some regard it as the only path to growth and well-being, the collec- tive voice of those who question the merits of globalisation has been getting louder and louder. The WTO – as the central pillar in the world trade archi- tecture – is an ideal target for opponents of globalisation. Sigma’s BARBARA JAKOB talked to PATRICK LOW, Director of the WTO’s ‘Development and Economic Research Division’ about this burning issue. Steering world trade through the ocean of globalisation

he central reproach towards live in a multi-faceted world or Tglobalisation and the WTO is it too focused on promoting as one of its representatives is trade?’ that commercial interests come before environmental and social The opponents of globalisa- interests and, moreover, that the tion and WTO critics show WTO fosters this preference. Is clear contradictions in their this justified? positions: on the one hand, they say the governments must A lot of the criticism articulat- have the independence to ed since Seattle concerns envi- take actions in pursuance of ronmental quality and ques- their own policy objectives tions of income distribution and, on the other, they claim and poverty. And there is that the WTO is not powerful indeed some very legitimate enough in checking particular concern about globalisation, behaviour and policies. The the impact of globalisation rules of the WTO do, in many trends in different countries ways, give space to govern- and how deeper integration ments who wish to pursue affects things that you didn’t environmental or social policy necessarily factor in from the aims. beginning. Patrick Low, an economist by education, is Director of the Development and Economic Research A wider agenda But it is misguided to hold the Division at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). WTO responsible for every aspect of international activity The division he heads is responsible for economic Looking back to the Doha con- and the interactions of govern- research inside the WTO secretariat and for managing ference, you can see that the ments and societies. The situa- trade agenda has evolved a the work of the Commission on Trade and Develop- tion is a lot more complicated great deal. The introduction of than our critics make ment, the Committee where development policy issues services and intellectual prop- allowance for. One has to are discussed. The Development and Economic erty are concrete examples of remember that the WTO is a Research Division also has a major input to the WTO how the action field of the trade organisation and that its WTO has widened from trade annual report and works closely with the WTO statisti- rules are agreed among gov- of goods to other areas of con- ernments. The WTO is not cal service division. cern. In many ways, this some sort of world govern- reflects new economic reali- When Mr Low joined the newly-created WTO in 1995, ment. For me, the question to ties. If the WTO didn’t take ask is: ‘Does the WTO do he had already gained experience in world trade issues at these subjects on board, it enough to recognise that we the WTO's precursor, the GATT, from 1980 to 1988. would become less relevant in S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 9

the system of global gover- It is certainly true that our to restrict trade, bearing in cooperate with the Inter- nance. institutions for addressing all mind the overwhelming evi- national Standards Organis- these questions are not near- dence available of how trade ation, and with the Food and It used to be rather simple with ly as well developed or as enriches societies? Surely, the Agricultural Organisation of an orientation focused primarily strong as they could be. In adverse distributional conse- the UN for certain agricultural on trade in goods, with rela- that sense, there is certainly quences of trade should be and sanitary questions. tively few provisions on regula- a deficit of global gover- targeted by re-distribution poli- tions and supporting norms, nance. In the environmental cies. The answer is not to deny Mediating without which sufficed to govern global field, there is clearly plenty nations the benefits of interna- trade. With continuing globali- of scope for international tional exchange. imposing uniformity sation and increasing interac- cooperation, without which tion, more and more regula- we would end up in deeply Will cooperation with other Why are developing coun- tions are needed in ever more compromised environmental international organisations – as tries so reticent about extend- areas, and that becomes very situations. one of the WTO’s functions – ing the negotiating agenda complicated to agree upon gain importance? to environmental and social internationally. It also raises the It is much harder to see clear- issues? question of how much of this the ly what should be done inter- Certainly. If you look at the WTO should do, how much nationally on distributional Doha Declaration, you will I think the reason why many should be done by other agents aspects of economic policy. see multiple references to the developing countries have of international cooperation, There is no doubt that it is a importance of inter-institution- doubts about this kind of and how much should simply matter of concern at the inter- al cooperation. In the area of agenda is that they believe it be left to national jurisdictions. national level. Some of our technical assistance and could be driven by a protec- critics would claim that capacity-building, we have tionist inclination. They fear Is there a growing need for increased trade simply impov- close relationships with UNC- that as trade barriers of the globalisation to be tackled in its erishes groups of people. TAD, for example, but also traditional kind have come wider sense and, for example, There can be no doubt that with the World Bank, the IMF, down, these are new fron- environmental and social trade policy changes have dis- UNDP and the International tiers for introducing meas- aspects to be governed on a tributional effects that are not Trade Centre. In other areas ures that will frustrate the global scale? all positive. But is this a reason such as standard setting, we trade of developing countries

A vision of free trade Promoting reconstruction and eco- nomic growth through market open- ing and free trade was the aim that led to establishing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in the aftermath of the Second World War in 1948. The world trading system was born and devel- oped in a series of trade negotia- tions, or ‘rounds’. Following the Uruguay Round, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was created in 1995 as the successor to GATT.

Together with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the WTO is often perceived to be something like an all-mighty world Moreover, the WTO provides a mecha- Recent agreements concern intellec- and competition on the table for government which rules over global nism for settling trade disputes as well tual property and trade in services. negotiation. issues. This is far from being true as technical assistance and training for At the WTO ministerial conference in since it has no mandate for social or developing countries. Doha in November 2001 a new Comprising 144 member countries, environmental standards, for exam- round of multilateral trade negotia- which altogether account for more ple. It is a negotiating forum for the Decisions are taken by agreement tions was launched with environ- than 90% of world trade, the WTO is liberalisation of trade, watches over among the governments of the ment and sustainable development, no exclusive club: around 30 coun- the rules to be respected and pre- member countries (usually by con- development, market access for tries are negotiating to become WTO pares new negotiating rounds. sensus), each of which has one vote. goods and services and investment members. Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 10

– that it is a response from to eradicate child labour from feel they have insufficient ed additional attention in interest groups in large coun- one day to the next. bargaining power may well the Doha Declaration. tries that don’t want to com- have difficulties. pete with low-wage produc- To the extent that these issues But at the end of the day, it ers. become part of an internation- The WTO aspires to be a uni- is the governments that al agenda, they should be versal organisation, and if it must articulate and stand And then I agree with many firmly embedded in a broad wants to maintain its univer- for their interests. And they commentators in this field development context. sal character, it has to reflect do have possibilities to for- who believe that it is simply Environmental standards and the interests of all players. tify their position even if inappropriate politically, the demand for environmental So, what can be done about they are small. This is to do socially and economically to quality will rise as income it? We try to address those with being coherent about argue for uniform standards rises. The same is true in restraints and difficulties and identifying and articulating in these kinds of areas. respect of social policies. provide training, technical a national interest, looking Different countries face very assistance and capacity- for ways of forming different situations and have One country, building. We also cooperate alliances with countries different priorities. What one vote with other institutions in this with similar interests etc. international agreements area. have to try to do is to medi- Small and developing coun- People sometimes forget that ate among those differences tries, including some com- The WTO is not a develop- the WTO is a consensus- without imposing inappropri- mentators, feel that develop- ment organisation, yet three based organisation. Consen- ate uniformity. ing countries have difficulties quarters of its members are sus can be denied, even by in participating fully in the developing countries. This is small countries, if they feel As for labour standards, decision-making process … why we lay great emphasis strongly enough about some- developing countries are reti- on supporting them in their thing. That is a key feature of cent about negotiating wage I think that is absolutely true. efforts to participate in the this institution and it’s one of issues or questions of child Developing countries that system through technical the things that make it hard to labour because none of these are not well endowed with assistance and capacity- arrive at agreements. There is countries could afford higher human capital, are inexperi- building. This aspect of the no core power that rules over wages nor would they be able enced in these matters, and WTO’s activities has receiv- everything.

Statistics – a drawn-out business

he WTO statistics depart- has been done to provide a good global picture looking Tment collects, analyses wide range of data with rea- at relatively few countries, and disseminates statistics on sonable quality and compara- but the reality of millions of international trade on goods bility. But as soon as you try other people remains in the and services and keeps a large to branch out into other areas dark. Statistics tend to focus database on tariffs, which is such as globalisation, you’ll on one small part of the real- used for tariff negotiations. run into difficulties. As for ity to the neglect of others.” comparability, we very often Patrick Low’s connection with find it extremely hard to And for a conciliatory ending, statistics is that of a user compare basic data across he makes some concessions to although his job currently con- countries and over time.” the quality of Eurostat’s and the sists more of management than international statistical commu- of economic analysis. Neverthe- Poverty and income distribu- nity’s work: “I am happy with less, he has some very strong tion statistics are, according the headway that has been convictions when it comes to to him, generally very poor, statistics: “Statistics and lies too. Another difficulty is the made in the very challenging sometimes make comfortable weak statistical administra- area of trade in services, and the bedfellows in the absence of tions in developing countries work on electronic commerce is accuracy”, he says. that give rise to limitations taking off. This is but a start, and failings in statistics. the challenge is endless. We Low notices shortcomings in have to be aware that there is a terms of coverage but also Added to that, there is a constant need not only to try to when it comes to internation- basic problem that cannot improve quality in statistics but al comparability. “In the tra- easily be solved: “You might also to move into new uncon- ditional area of statistics, a lot already obtain a reasonably quered areas.” S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 11

There is little doubt that the fruits of globalisation are not shared out equally between industrialised and developing countries. But even with- in the industrialised world, far from everyone has the same opportuni- ties, Dr PAUL RÜBIG, Member of the European Parliament and President of the European Independent Business Confederation, reminds us. Sigma’s BARBARA JAKOB talked with him. Having a say in the rules of the game

aul Rübig makes clear Dr Rübig, who, as a member Pright from the start what of a European Parliament del- concerns him most. Himself egation, attended the world the owner of a small business, trade negotiations both in with experience of globalisa- Seattle and in Doha, sees the tion, he has made it his task demonstrations against glob- to represent the interests of alisation as motivated not small and medium-sized least by a strong suspicion enterprises (SMEs). that what is masquerading as ‘liberalisation’ is in fact pro- The European economy may tectionism: “When high-rank- be dominated by small busi- ing politicians speak to dock- nesses, but the ‘global play- ers on the fringe of the World ers’ are still almost exclusively Trade Conference and prom- the large corporations. “For ise to protect them from com- McDonald’s or Microsoft, petition, then it is not a ques- globalisation has long ceased tion of equal opportunities, but to be an issue”, he explains. of safeguarding privileges.”

Only large businesses have the The ‘justifiable outcry’ of those necessary financial clout and who oppose globalisation the ability to find their way Dr Paul Rübig (49) is in his second term as a has, he believes, set some- through the labyrinth of legisla- Member of the European Parliament for Austria. From a thing in motion, the first results tion and customs regulations. career as a blacksmith he went back to school to eventu- of which were in evidence dur- ally study business management and write a thesis on ing the Doha negotiations. For “It is much more difficult for small international patent and licensing policy. the first time, non-governmen- businesses to cross borders”, tal organisations were really says Dr Rübig. “That is why With his forge, he decided to take up the challenge of global- involved, the developing coun- politicians must intervene to rec- isation and built up an export department in his medium- tries got more of a say in the tify this and also give SMEs the sized business. After 15 successful years he was drawn into decision-making process and opportunity to get their share of politics and was elected first to the regional, then to the greater consideration was the world market.” national and finally, in 1996, to the European Parliament. given to their interests. So far, so good. But what With his background, it seems only logical that he should First things first about the worries dominating represent the interests of small and medium-sized enter- the current debate on globali- prises as the European People's Party spokesperson for For Dr Rübig, the recipe for sation, that developing coun- SMEs. He is also a member of the Parliament's the future is and remains ‘lib- tries will emerge from this Committee on Industry, External Trade, Research and eralisation’. “The 40 poorest process as the losers, I object. Energy and of the Committee on budgets. countries of the world can only Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 12

achieve prosperity, if we open In the EU, there are around 18 A limited number of Members trade talks is, he thinks, an up the markets for them, too, of Parliament would hold an absolute necessity here. “I and enable them to sell their million small and medium- open debate on globalisation fully agree with Commission- products and mineral resour- sized enterprises (SMEs, busi- and set objectives, in consulta- er Lamy that the EU must ces. This is the way to higher nesses with fewer than 250 tion with non-governmental appear more united in this added value, which means organisations. The necessary area and that Europe’s voice employees). About two thirds of they will ultimately be able funding for this is already in the world comes across dif- to pay better wages, impro- all employees in the EU – about available. ferently from the voices of ve social standards and 74 million out of 112 million – individual countries.” eventually also take environ- What a functioning system of work in these businesses. mental measures”, is his global governance requires Democratic thinking. Measured in terms of their contri- above all though, according bution to Gross Domestic Product to Dr Rübig, is that Europe accountability Conversely, laying down con- or operating taxes though, they become aware of its role as a ditions for the attainment of leading economic power and For Dr Rübig, at least equally certain standards before are anything but small: SMEs redefine its position in rela- important is greater parlia- exports are allowed, and produce 60% of GDP and bring in tion to international organisa- mentary scrutiny of trade pol- thereby creating obstacles, around 80% of operating taxes. tions. This is also an impor- icy, and therefore increased would mean, according to Dr tant subject for the powers for the European Rübig, putting the cart before Convention on the future of Parliament in formulating the horse. He also sees a Platform for the the European Union. and monitoring trade policy. danger that countries that are exchange of views A proposal on these lines today still at the negotiating From (global) was recently put to the Heads table will become increasing- of State and Government by ly convinced that they are This means however that the payers to players the Commission, but has not being fobbed off with crumbs world trade talks can no yet been accepted. by the industrialised nations. longer be conducted by “Europe is still far too preoc- They could be tempted to experts behind closed doors cupied with itself. ‘Global The European Union current- resort to violent means, and be limited to technical payer’ may be an accurate ly acts at trade negotiations because they are no longer issues. Instead, he would like description , but as yet we are on the principle that the Com- prepared to wait. to see an open political no ‘global player’”, he re- mission negotiates on the debate, in which all issues are minds us. “The European insti- basis of directives approved Without a further opening of covered and common funda- tutions must give serious by the Union’s Council of the markets there is there- mental values and ground thought to how we can have a Ministers and transmitted to fore, in Dr Rübig’s opinion, rules are discussed. part in laying down the the European Parliament. The no way forward. This ground rules in this world.” Commission is assisted at applies equally to Europe A European Parliament initia- negotiations by the Member and to its partner countries tive provides for the setting up A united front by the coun- States’ representatives. around the world. of a parliamentary assembly. tries of Europe at the world “The EU’s bilateral agree- ments with third countries must Statistics and globalisation naturally be subject to the approval of the European Dr Rübig: “As an aid to political decision-making, statistics play an immensely important role. Parliament”, says Dr Rübig. Before we can develop strategies for the future, we must be familiar with structures and trends. “We should – and we want to – involve ourselves more But precisely in the area of statistics on globalisation, there is a great need for action. There actively in this process. What are, for example, almost no statistics available on the extent to which SMEs are involved in we ultimately want to achieve the process of globalisation”, Dr Rübig regrets. “As yet, a breakdown of exports by business is a balance between liberali- size class is just as rare as an analysis of the effects of exports on added value. Although sation of the market and admittedly that is more than a purely statistical question.” socially and environmentally sustainable conditions. In In this context, the international comparability of data is also once again coming to the fore. other words, we must place What is important, though, is that data are relevant and up to date. “We are willing to accept the emphasis on a market a certain margin of error, if data are made available more quickly. It is often not even a prob- economy, while acknowledg- lem of availability or up-to-dateness, but quite simply of fast access. The aim is to create auto- ing our responsibilities. The mated access to existing data (eg. from tax offices, banks etc.) in real time, so that data can concept of an ecosocial mar- be collected without the bureaucracy.” ket economy is for us a last- ing vision.” S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 13

Heading the General Affairs directorate of the Commission’s DG Trade, FRANÇOISE LE BAIL is one of the numerous people behind the scenes who contribute to animating the debate on the evolution of EU trade policy. Trade analysis and bilateral commercial relations with the countries of the former East Bloc are her directorate’s two core functions, making her an ideal person to discuss globalisation issues and their statistical offshoots. Putting solidarity into globalisation

he potential benefits of glob- Talisation are immense – comparable with those stem- ming from European unification – and that is why, right from the outset, Europe has constantly striven for openness. The econ- omy benefits with economies of scale and the specialisation that trade allows, but also thanks to greater competition and the spread of technologies. For the consumer, this actually means that goods and services are cheaper, offer greater variety and are constantly changing.

In the case of developing coun- tries, international integration can also be a key factor in growth and help them catch up this reason that the EU is not require mechanisms for internal The difficulty with a subject such with more advanced nations. content merely to encourage as well as external solidarity to as genetically modified organ- This is borne out by the history openness but rather to ensure be devised. isms (GMOs) stems from the of Japan and the countries of that it is based on proper rules fact that there are different eastern and southeast Asia. and can foster sustainable How can the risks of glob- ideas about risks and that it can development, just like all the ini- alised, liberalised markets – be hard to reconcile these The benefits of globalisation tiatives we have already taken such as the spread of diseases ideas. The EU now follows the can even be felt with regard to both in- and outside Europe. like BSE or GMOs or increas- principle of precaution in its risk the environment, where an ing instability through competi- management, but this approach awareness of global problems I am thinking, of course, of tion – be limited? is not yet shared or acknowl- and even some tentative health risks and more generally edged by everyone. answers have begun to emerge of environmental risks. But I am There have to be rules. There – look at the follow-up to Kyoto also thinking about the poorest are World Trade Organisation What role does statistics play in or the emphasis in Doha on countries that risk being left rules, which cover for example your work? trade in environmental goods behind by the whole globalisa- trade in products that may and services. tion process, which is intrinsi- well cause problems when it We act at every stage of trade cally extremely selective. Lastly, comes to health and plant policy. At the start, the analysis At the same time, the risks have there are internal risks of health. This affects half of agri- unit leads the discussion on the increased in every field. It is for increasing inequality, which cultural trade. way policy should develop in Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 14

every sector covered by inter- We are heavy users of statistical International trade in services one of the four methods of sup- national trade talks – traditional data bases. For trade in goods, and foreign direct investment ply according to the GATS defi- market access (focusing more we use virtually all the existing are the two areas where the nition) and more generally for all and more on non-tariff topics or data bases, especially those of policy aspects are the most talks on market access, since the recently incorporated sectors Eurostat (Comext), the United important and where the statis- activities of foreign subsidiaries such as agriculture or services), Nations (Comtrade), the IMF tical data are most lacking. and the nationality of producers but also on new topics such as (DOTS) and the WTO. We also They lag way behind trade in are not irrelevant when it comes competition and investment or often use the CHELEM data goods, where the information to defining trade policy. even their connection with base (CEPII), which is the only has been available for a long social and environmental issues one that provides a harmonised time, at a very detailed level, – with an analysis of the impact world trade matrix. and for almost 200 countries, Future hopes that some or other free trade and which is also an area in agreement will have on this or We also make use of the infor- which there has already been a From your point of view, how that partner. mation collected by Eurostat in lot of negotiation. should the global statistical sys- NewCronos for trade in servic- tem grow to reflect the glob- The statistical system also has a es, foreign investment (where we In the case of services or FDI, alised world appropriately? role to play in crisis manage- also have UNCTAD figures) and much still needs to be done, ment. In this connection, it is its macroeconomic series (sup- but the statistics we have exist Globalisation brings a twofold absolutely vital that we have a plemented by data and forecasts only at a fairly aggregate challenge for official statistics. system for monitoring trade in from DG ECFIN, the OECD, the level – and, to some extent, In the first place, we need to sensitive products, which can IMF, the World Bank and they are incompatible with the deal with the conceptual diffi- involve, for instance, adapting WEFA). way negotiations are handled culties which it gives rise to and existing classifications. This – and for a small number of which jeopardise its scope. issue arose during the ‘mad We look at Eurostat data first – countries. cow’ crisis and in connection and frankly I’d be rather shocked A firm’s nationality provides with imports of genetically mod- if we didn’t. On the whole, the This situation has a particularly a good example (see articles ified products. quality is adequate, even if there detrimental effect on our posi- on the following pages): as are occasional problems that tions and arguments – especial- long as firms operated pri- Statistical information is thus a crop up. Updating is always ly when other members of the marily in a national context, necessity. It ranges from coun- very slow, especially when a WTO, such as the United the definition of their nation- try notes compiled for trips by Member of the Commission fails States, have much more ality posed no problem and Members of the Commission to understand that there are detailed data at their disposal. the activity of foreign groups to the use, at a very detailed some data we don’t have. This is why we attach special was fairly easy to determine. level, of trade flows for the importance to the discussions But when groups become compilation of indicators But, of course, we are well that are underway between even more outward-looking, showing protection or econo- aware of the constraints affecting Eurostat and the Member States or when they merge with for- metric models useful for identi- the production of harmonised on statistics concerning trade in eign groups, it becomes fying priorities for market statistical data for 15 EU services. harder and harder to deter- access. Providing information Member States. In organisation- mine what’s what. This is a full-time job for two peo- al terms, we have more prob- Another matter of priority for us means taking another look at ple in my directorate and has lems with the instability of data are the statistics on the activities concepts, definitions and a prime place on our Intranet. bases, which are constantly of foreign firms in Europe and tools that no longer apply. being updated without anyone European firms abroad. We feel telling us about major revisions. that this ‘real’ picture of FDI is At a more ambitious level, the No time to lose just as important as actual FDI statistical system needs to Gaping gaps statistics. The information is of respond to the questions posed What are your information direct use for talks on foreign by globalisation. I have already sources, and how do you rate What are the main gaps in sta- investment and on services mentioned international talks on Eurostat statistics? tistical information? (since establishment abroad is services or FDI. But mention can also be made of e-trade, and more generally of an accurate Having finished her law studies, Françoise Le Bail started her profes- understanding of how interna- sional career, joining the European Commission in 1977. She held various positions, tional integration occurs (signifi- among others, as Spokeswoman and Head of Cabinet but always faithful to her pas- cance of intra-firm trade, verti- sion – external relations. Since December 2000, Françoise Le Bail is Director at DG cal disintegration, etc.). Only Trade and in charge of resources, trade analysis, interinstitutional relations and com- then will we able to arrive at munication, as well as bilateral trade relations with Russia and other countries of the policy-making fit for a glob- CIS and the Balkans. alised world and of benefit to everyone. S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 15

Globalisation has raised a number of issues for statisticians: the activity of foreign-owned enterprises, intra-group trade and its valuation, enterprise groups, foreign direct investment flows … And it even puts one of the very basics of today’s statistics into question, the concept of territoriality.

On the following pages, statistical experts address these questions. DENIS LEYTHIENNE of Eurostat’s external and intra-community trade unit kicks off …

of national economic policy Trade as the motor decisions. This is the case, for example, in the automobile sec- tor in which there has been a significant expansion in intra- of globalisation industry trade, with each pro- duction unit specialising in a component or a range of vehi- n simple terminological jar- cles (see graphs below). Igon, external trade statistics “The development measure the physical move- of 'captive' intra- In the computer industry, it ments of goods crossing nation- comes as no surprise now to al frontiers. From the very start, company trade learn that an international they have been linked to the cannot be group has its headquarters in customs duties levied at the bor- California, produces the chips ders of a territory and are thus explained by in Malaysia and assembles based on reliable and detailed classical theories of the PCs in Ireland. In fact, this fiscal sources. One of the key is almost commonplace. But, contributions of these statistics is external trade.” the rationale, at the group to measure, by means of the level, of such trade flows can- trade balance, any imbalances not be analysed when consid- in a country’s trade with the rest ering the bilateral trade flows of the world. between USA, Malaysia and Ireland. They are, therefore, based on the concept of territoriality, As a result, we are seeing the which have made it possible to development of ‘captive’ accurately monitor the upsurge intra-company trade which in trade between national cannot be explained by clas- economies observed over the sical theories of external last fifty years. What they can- trade (such as Ricardo’s theo- not do, however, is to provide ry of comparative advan- information on the phenome- tages), but rather by the non of globalisation in which planned decisions taken by the main economic actors are multinational companies. no longer states but multination- al companies, pursuing invest- The prices, themselves, used for ment, production and market- this intra-company trade can ing strategies on a global scale. differ from the market prices when the group seeks to take advantage of differences in tax- ‘Captive’ trade ation between countries (‘trans- fer prices’ phenomenon). For In a large number of sectors, example, let us assume, that trade flows reflect more the profits are less taxed in long-term strategies pursued by Malaysia than in Ireland. The certain groups than the results Malaysian subsidiary may sell Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 16

the chips to the Irish subsidiary at a higher price than the mar- ket one. As a consequence, tax- able profits will increase for the Intra-EU trade (1988 = 100) Malaysian subsidiary and 400 decrease for the Irish one, lead- ing to a net gain for the com- pany as a whole. 350

The increasing importance of 300 multinational companies is, therefore, distorting the inter- 250 pretation of external trade fig- ures, when used for both gen- eral economic and trade policy 200 decisions. 150 Light at the end 100 of the tunnel 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

But there’s light at the end of Car components (for industrial assembly) Total products the tunnel. The European Union’s main trade partners – the USA and Japan – and some of its Member States – such as France and the Extra-EU trade (1988 = 100) Netherlands – have crafted new surveys which aim to 600 measure the weight of inter- national groups in interna- 500 tional trade. The USA, for example, has estimated that 400 one-third of its trade in goods is made up of intra- company trade. 300

Within Eurostat, a ‘Trade 200 registers/globalisation’ task force composed of five 100 Member States was set up in 1998 to study the impact of globalisation on external 0 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 trade and develop new indi- cators on this topic. Its Car components (for industrial assembly) Total products methodological work, in cooperation with other The upsurge in intra-industry trade in the automobile industry illustrates a general trend towards specialisation – Eurostat units and the OECD, and it makes the somewhat intangible globalisation phenomenon rather more concrete (source: Comext). identified two indicators for collection: the Contribution of International Groups to The main handicap so far has current context of lightening the statistical system for external External Trade (CIGET) and been the lack of data on these burden of statistical declarations, trade. The goal is to match the intra-company trade. These groups, particularly in business particularly when it comes to tasks inherent in monitoring two groups of statistics – registers, and the lack of har- intra-Community trade. globalisation and catch up based on the concept of cap- monisation in this field at with the mechanisms already ital ownership – would shed European level. What is more, The solution? Specific resources set up by the EU’s main com- new light on the current sta- the collection of these new statis- will therefore need to be allocat- petitors. Like this, we’ll be tistics based on the concept tics has met with a certain ed by Eurostat and the national able to put more of our words of territoriality. amount of resistance within the administrations to adapt the into concrete action. S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 17

Istat is heavily involved in the international debate on transnational enter- prise groups and the statistical measurement of globalisation. ENRICA MORGANTI shares her views on this difficult-to-grasp phenomenon. Climbing aboard the same globalisation train

uring the last two agreements on environmental Time for a As far as Balance of Payments Ddecades, the increasing and labour standards. new tool set is concerned, trade statistics liberalisation of international took no account of the goods transactions, the development The evaluation of the impact and services produced within a of information technology and of globalisation requires statis- New economic phenomena country by foreign-owned enter- the decreasing costs of inter- tical information on how TEGs always pose a real challenge for prises, while FDI flows are gen- national transport, have push- organise their activities, the the statistician, and in the case of erally limited by the non-avail- ed enterprises to adopt global relevance of intra-firm trade globalisation, the increasing ability of breakdowns at indus- strategies, involving not only flows and the effects of tech- demand for information crashes try and country levels, with the trade flows and investments in nology transfers. Such infor- with the inadequacy of old tools. exceptions of a few countries. different countries, but also the mation is needed at the enter- The System of National Acc- establishment of equity and prise level, including that ounts, based on the concept of Recently proposed ownership- non-equity relationships across between national parents and territoriality, generates residence- based measures may offer borders. their foreign subsidiaries and based measures of production alternative means to link trans- vice versa, or at least at indus- and trade, which are clearly actions to a national domain, These facts have substantially try and country levels. behind the times. but as TEGs increasingly span changed the architecture of the world economic system, the main economic actors being now transnational enter- prise groups (TEGs), who play in a context of intense interna- tional competition.

Understanding the complex phenomenon of globalisation is crucial for evaluating the welfare effects of trade liberal- isation and finance policies. From the perspective of the national economy, the debate focuses on the question wheth- er cross-border inward and outward activities of global businesses are beneficial to domestic income and employ- ment growth in the long term.

Moreover, intra-firm transac- tions as well as re-organisa- tion strategies, pursued through mergers and acquisitions and relocation of activities world- wide, call for both stronger competition policy and regula- tion and for international Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 18

over several nations, this con- and on financial markets, has for identifying enterprise groups ing statistical information cept is probably going to lose engendered new administrative – as far as operational rules are between interest groups. its relevance, too. sources produced by market reg- concerned. ulatory authorities, collecting In Italy, we particularly need to Hopes in the information on equity and non- Herculean tasks develop effective tools to meas- business register equity links among enterprises, ure the number and size of enter- mainly at enterprise level. Difficulties arise because this con- prises, due to the specific struc- A new statistical tool – that col- cept varies widely according to ture of the productive system, lects data on enterprises and The main difficulties encountered the corporate legislation in each characterised by a high number their links with foreign sub- for integrating such information country, and the availability of of small and medium-sized enter- sidiaries as well as affiliates – is are of both a methodological administrative sources is strictly prises (SMEs). In order to cor- the business register, as a survey and practical nature. On the dependent on it. Simple opera- rectly measure market concen- frame, built up and maintained methodological side, there is the tional rules are usually adopted, tration, and to define industrial by integrating administrative and problem of harmonising con- which lead to a certain reduction and competition policies, the statistical sources. The wealth of cepts and definitions, since infor- of the population of units consid- real industrial make-up needs to information it contains, classified mation is collected for different ered as part of a group. In par- be understood. according to internationally institutional purposes. In practi- ticular, it is difficult capturing and agreed concepts and definitions, cal terms, there is the obstacle of classifying non-financial links In addition, enterprise demogra- makes it possible to reduce the achieving cooperation among other than the absolute majority phy (births, cessations, mergers, statistical burden on business national independent bodies of voting rights. break-ups, split-offs, etc.), yields and improve comparability managing such data. different results if they are based among countries at the same The need to measure trade flows on real independent enterprises, time. This means that national sta- Moreover, as far as TEGs are and investment among parent rather than enterprises belong- tistical institutes will be requested concerned, the current impossi- units and subsidiaries across ing to an enterprise group. to ensure that their statistics bility of using a single compre- countries will be satisfied only increasingly comply with interna- hensive source containing cross- once trans-border control links Furthermore, information on the tional quality requirements. border information on equity between units in national regis- structure of enterprise groups at and non-equity links among ters are established. national level is fundamental to The removal of trade barriers enterprises, implies that only Cooperation between business the study of ‘contestable’ finan- and foreign exchange controls truncated TEGs can be observed registers is envisaged at least at cial markets and their efficiency has often eliminated the regula- in national registers, based on European level, even though the in the allocation of enterprises’ tory mechanisms operated by national collection systems. obstacles to sharing information property rights. In Italy, enter- customs and central banks, are generally enormous and, for prise groups mainly have pyram- which traditionally provided This limitation can be reduced the time being, insurmountable. idal structures, and the market administrative data on interna- by adopting – at the interna- for corporate control is highly tional flows and investments. tional level – a common frame- The Italian case concentrated in family groups. work of concepts regarding the Institutional investors – which However, the development of nature of such links. One of the What are we doing? The Italian have come onto the scene only competition policy and regula- main concepts to agree on is National Statistical Institute is in recent years and are under- tion, both on goods and services that of controls – as the basic link actively contributing to the inter- sized with respect to countries national debate – in full swing with more developed financial at both Eurostat and the OECD markets – are still insufficiently Enrica Morganti (35) has been a – about developing harmonised active to ensure favourable con- researcher at Istat since 1998. After studying econom- concepts and definitions on ditions for effective competition. ics in Pisa and London, she went on to do a doctorate TEGs as well as new statistical in political economic research at the University of tools to measure globalisation. A deeper understanding of all Ancona. Her first job was as a research student at the these aspects would provide a Institute of Foreign Trade in 1997 where she spe- During the last couple of years, precious informative instrument cialised in regionalism, free trade areas and foreign our main energies have been for policy-makers, engaged in direct investment. devoted to the setting-up of a building up a framework of business register on enterprise industrial and competition legis- Since 1999, Enrica Morganti has been cooperating groups. In 2001, a report con- lation and policies in Europe to with Eurostat on enterprise groups, and is currently taining the final result of a proj- ensure the long-term growth of contributing to the drafting of a new chapter on ect entitled ‘Delineation of income and employment. It is up enterprise groups in the 'Methodological manual of European standards for the to the statistical world now to business registers'. She is also a delegate to the OECD treatment of enterprise groups speed up and climb aboard the DSTI-Working group (Directorate for Science, in business registers’ was globalisation train. Although it is Technology and Industry) for the realisation of a released on CIRCA, the rolling full-steam ahead, there is 'Manual of globalisation indicators'. European website for exchang- still time to get on. S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 19

nterest in the economic Enterprise groups are a central element when it comes to statistically moni- behaviour of enterprise I ARTO LUHTIO groups is increasing rapidly: toring globalisation processes. – head of the business how they organise their activi- register sector at Eurostat – answers some of the questions raised when it ties and what the impact is on production, employment, re- comes to capturing these multinational transborder actors through statistics. search, investments, financial incomes and external trade at global, national and regional levels. From the international Enterprise groups: viewpoint, knowledge about enterprise groups is a basic tool to improve various statis- tics on globalisation. a hard nut However, measuring globalisa- tion is far less important in explaining why work on enter- to crack open prise groups is regarded as high-priority in Member States. A far more important factor at Control is defined as a dichoto- national level is enterprise mous variable and can only groups’ impact on concentra- take value 1 (control) or 0 (no tion processes, which affect control). Partial control naturally competition and regional happens, but it is not suitable development. Thus, informa- for statistical analysis, because tion is needed for both multi- the groups would not be mutu- national groups and all-resi- ally exclusive. dent groups and will also be of interest for economists in The most important mode of economic analysis. control is the ownership of the majority of voting rights. Other Enterprise groups are becom- modes exist and there are cases ing the third statistical unit in when owning the majority of business registers, after enter- shares does not necessarily prises and local units. The mean control. On the other importance of the latter two hand, control can be applied units remains the same, as all by a minority owner having three are used for different pur- ‘golden shares’ or the power to poses. Furthermore, enterprise appoint directors. groups can be used to better delineate enterprises and thus What needs improve the comparability and recording … quality of business statistics. “Enterprise groups

are becoming the So, what should now be record- Who’s in control? third statistical unit in ed for enterprise groups? This is certainly a matter of resources business registers.” According to Council Regula- and the information available, tion 696/93 on Statistical but some basic requirements Units, enterprise groups are ness Register Recommendations ly. In practice, control is mainly must be fulfilled: the units defined as “an association of Manual’. The chapter will be observed between legal units belonging to the group must be enterprises bound together by finalised by the end of 2002. rather than enterprises. The known, preferably the whole legal and/or financial links”. identity of the legal unit (par- group structure including all As practical guidelines are The starting point for the cre- ent), which controls another links of control. The group head needed, Eurostat – together ation of an enterprise group is legal unit (subsidiary), is now must be known and, preferably, with Member States – is cur- to record when an enterprise an optional variable in business the group should be recorded rently preparing a chapter on controls one or several other registers but should become as a separate statistical unit enterprise groups for the ‘Busi- enterprises, directly or indirect- compulsory in the long term. with its own identifier. Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 20

The nationality of the group is As this involves a great deal of more, three Member States are tion of almost all countries. In highly important, although some- manual work, only the largest currently working on it and plans many countries, there are times it may be difficult to decide groups can be manually pro- exist in the remaining two coun- even problems in exchanging in which country the main deci- filed. For smaller groups, an tries. Within a few years, all EU information between the statis- sion centre is located. As groups algorithm can be developed. Member States are expected to tical institute and other statisti- are often engaged in many eco- This is now done in only a have information on enterprise cal compilers like the Central nomic activities, it is recom- couple of countries, while oth- groups. Bank or Customs Office, mended to record all the impor- ers find that the information on although thanks to changes in tant activities, rather than the large groups is sufficient for But none of the EFTA and legislation this problem is principal activity alone. A great the moment. Candidate Countries possess slowly receding. part of the total employment is in information on enterprise enterprise groups and knowing Different practices groups yet, although in two The strict confidentiality rules this share is important for eco- countries this is planned or at may seem strange when they nomic decision-making. International harmonisation the starting phase. Depending concern information such as in the context of enterprise on national pressure to pro- company accounts, which are Data on turnover are important groups and globalisation is vide the information, some public, published in newspa- too but difficult to obtain and indispensable. However, har- countries are likely to kick off pers, and which can be only consolidated figures for the monising the definitions at EU the work soon, while others bought from commercial group should be recorded. level is not enough. Let’s take may wait for EU methodology providers. But as the statistical Changes concerning concentra- an example: a certain enter- to be finalised. institutes can easily combine tion (mergers, take-overs) decon- prise group can, from country public data with their various centration and restructuring in A’s perspective, possess Development in enterprise existing data, they are – and the groups are important for country B nationality, while group statistics in the EU, EFTA with good reason – very strict economic and business demo- from country B’s perspective, and Candidate Countries is about confidentiality. graphic analysis, and should the same group may be con- monitored in the Business be monitored. sidered as having country A Register Annual Inquiry. Nevertheless, this confidential- nationality. This is why it is ity problem must be solved. … and where to essential to agree on the Last year, the OECD and the There is a clear need for get the information basic definitions at OECD UN Economic Commission adjusting European legislation level at least, which suffices for Europe decided for the to remove the restrictions con- There is a considerable variety for now since only very few first time to inquire about the cerning the exchange of enter- of information sources. non-OECD countries keep situation in their own mem- prise group information at EU Information on enterprise groups information on enterprise ber countries. Thus, we now level. Naturally, the exchange can be collected by surveys, but groups. have a picture of the state of of information would only be depending on the country it can the art in about 50 devel- possible between statistical also be available in various A proposal for defining oped countries. institutes, and no information administrative sources: consoli- nationality exists in the OECD would be released to any dated accounts, chambers of (draft) Manual on Economic In most developing countries, the third party. commerce, fiscal files, etc. In Globalisation Indicators. The basic business statistics infra- addition, private sources have EU methodology is consistent structure, such as business regis- Using one or several commer- gained ground and are used in with OECD methodology, but ters, are still in the planning or cial providers for Europe- (or several Member States. more elaborated and detail- construction phase. As the EU even world-) wide information ed. Enterprise groups are dis- business register methodology is on enterprise groups is also Whatever sources are used, cussed at several other inter- the most developed and the only an option worth considering. the final checking of the data, national forums and, hopeful- international one, it is widely But the downside of commer- combining it with the business ly, the basic definitions can used for reference around the cial sources is (apart from the register data and profiling of be agreed later at UN level. world and as a model by many price) their quality, which can the groups is tremendously countries developing their own be relatively good for one important. Profiling which is State of the art registers. country but not good enough carried out in the statistical in the EU for another. institutes means analysing the The confidentiality legal, operational, and The work on enterprise groups in mountain to climb To wrap up, the proposed accounting structure of the the EU has had a good track European business register of group at national and world record, taking into account the The biggest problem is confi- multinational groups does not levels (where possible), in heavy workload and many diffi- dentiality, as exchange of seem feasible at the moment. As order to establish the statistical culties involved. Ten EU Member information on multinational the implications of the various units and their links and to States already have some (albeit groups between National possibilities are still vague for the determine ways of better col- unharmonised) information on Statistical Institutes is now for- time being, we need to study all lecting data. enterprise groups. What is bidden in the national legisla- the options in depth. S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 21

With the continuous trend of globalisation, there has been increasing interest in statistics on the presence and performance of foreign-owned enter- prises. BETTINA KNAUTH, head of sector for development and analysis of structural business statistics, elucidates. A driving force for the integration of the world’s economies or a long time, the process of concept of inward FATS take the Feconomic globalisation used perspective of the affiliate and to be driven by the international analyse the economic activities trade of goods. Nowadays, the of the foreign affiliates in the establishment of economic activ- reporting economy. Statistics col- ity abroad constitutes an impor- lected under the concept of out- tant additional motor for the inte- ward FATS (see panel on next gration of the world’s econ- page) take the opposite per- omies. Consequently, transna- spective and analyse the foreign tional enterprise groups operat- affiliates controlled from the ing in a world-wide market reporting economy. beyond national borders have become one of the main actors in the globalisation process. More than one way

The statistical analysis of foreign Because foreign affiliates consti- affiliates sheds light on one of tute a subset of all enterprises in the principal relationships within an economy, one way of such transnational enterprise approaching inward FATS is to groups – the link between the break down business statistics mother company (the controlling by the nationality of the enter- enterprise) on the one hand and prises exercising the foreign con- the affiliate (the controlled enter- trol. This is the approach usually prise) on the other. Such a per- taken within the framework of spective necessarily reduces the structural business statistics. complexity of enterprise groups, as other links between enterpris- Alternatively, foreign affiliates es within the same group are left can also be conceptualised as a unconsidered. This limitation is subset of foreign direct invest- the price to be paid for a prag- ment enterprises – the subset, in matic approach that results in rel- “Foreign affiliates account which foreign direct investment evant statistics without necessitat- has attained a level correspon- ing the profiling of entire enter- for less than 1% of the ding to foreign control. Balance prise groups. total number of enterpris- of payments statistics normally es but for some 15% of uses this approach. The link between the affiliate and the mother company can be the total value added in Both practices have their respec- viewed from either perspective. many EU countries.” tive advantages and disadvan- The statistics collected under the tages. The plus point of the first Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 22

approach is its ability to link account for less than 1% of the data on foreign controlled enter- total number of enterprises, What are FATS? prises to data on the economy in their economic weight is sub- general. In particular, this means stantial, as they account for The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) that the characteristics of foreign some 15% of the total value defines the establishment of foreign affiliates as one of affiliates as economic actors can added in many EU Member the modes of supply of services. For many services, such 1 be compared to the characteris- States. as hotel and restaurant services, commercial presence tics of other enterprises within the same economy. Foreign affiliates are, of abroad constitutes the only viable possibility of trading; course, not found uniformly dis- for others, such as retail trade, it constitutes by far the The second approach has the tributed across the entire econ- most attractive channel. benefit of being able to comple- omy. Therefore, a separate ment the picture by data on out- analysis of different economic The set of statistics used to measure the extent of such ward FATS, thus providing infor- activities can shed light on the cross-border supply of services through the establishment mation on the other side of the question of which activities are of foreign affiliates has been termed ‘foreign affiliates coin. When we combine both most subject to the globalisa- trade in services statistics’, or ‘FATS’ for short. In the these approaches, we obtain a tion process. meantime, the general focus on globalisation issues has complete picture of the role played by foreign-controlled Results show, for instance, the resulted in an increased interest in the statistics on the enterprises. extreme heterogeneity within economic activity of foreign affiliates as a topic in its the services sector. While in own right, thus extending statistical coverage to other What do we learn? activities such as the electricity, sectors of the economy beyond services. Indeed, the gas and water supply indus- importance of foreign affiliates is currently higher in the A first and basic element of this tries – which have all had mar- manufacturing industry than in many of the services sec- picture is the information about ket protection for a long time – tors. Because of this, the acronym FATS is used nowa- the presence of foreign affili- the importance of foreign affili- ates and – more importantly – ates is negligible, foreign affili- days to describe the statistics on the economic activity of their economic significance. ates in some Member States foreign-controlled enterprises in general, regardless of Whilst foreign affiliates even dominate other sectors the economic sector concerned.

such as the wholesale of phar- ences in the productivity, per- maceutical goods or of office formance and profitability of machinery and equipment. foreign affiliates in comparison to nationally controlled enter- Another important angle for prises. the economic analysis of the globalisation process is the Such an analysis can give country of residence of mother important insights into the com- companies. Analysis shows petitiveness of EU economies. that a substantial share of But beware, the interpretation what are considered foreign of the figures calls for some affiliates in the EU actually caution. Although basic figures originates from other EU show that foreign affiliates Member States. Regarding often appear to be more pro- non-EU countries, the statistics ductive than national enterpris- show the overwhelming role es, this simple message might of the United States, as well be misleading, as the opposed to the low signifi- effects of size of the enterprise cance of other countries, and and the enterprise group are in particular Japan. usually ignored.

Apart from basic information Combining these perspectives about the extent of foreign con- can supply the raw material for trol and its breakdown by eco- detailed economic analyses of nomic activity and country of the role of specific foreign control, FATS also provide the countries in specific economic raw material for more econom- activities and the respective ic analyses and in particular international competitiveness of for the analysis of the differ- certain sectors of the economy. S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 23

A few hurdles tion, Eurostat intends to prepare to jump a detailed implementation guide addressing all special cases. The main challenges ahead are of varied nature and there- The most important difficulty con- fore we need a diverse tool kit cerning the production of statis- at hand. tics on foreign affiliates, howev- er, does not lie in the fine-tuning Despite several years of data of the methodological guide- production, a single frame- lines, but in the availability of work encompassing the per- reliable data sources for the spectives of structural business production of these statistics. statistics and foreign direct investment is still missing. Both In most Member States, these approaches currently co-exist statistics are produced through with the result that FATS data linking various sources togeth- are collected not only by er, some of which provide the National Statistical Institutes information on the economic as part of structural business characteristics, while others statistics, but equally by provide the information on the National Central Banks in the country of ultimate control. In framework of balance of pay- particular, the latter sources ments statistics. tend to be incomplete, especial- ly as far as small enterprises are In order to reconcile the concerned, lack reliability and approaches, representatives of require time-consuming addi- both institutions met together tional checking. with Eurostat in a first joint working group in order to foster What is more, the process of exchange of information and linking is fraught with practical called greenfield investments – both cases only enterprises collaboration. Given the problems and possible errors creating joint ventures with belonging to enterprise groups. encouraging experience, fur- due to differences in coverage, local enterprises or taking con- ther meetings of this kind are missing unique identifiers and trolling interest in existing enter- planned. What is at stake is non-overlapping samples. In prises) and, lastly, the motiva- What next? the cost-effective production of order to tackle these practical tions for setting up a foreign the statistics as well as its difficulties of data production, affiliate. The recent initiative of a joint coherence with two different the joint working group working group across institution- frameworks. embarked on the exchange of In addition, the interpreta- al boundaries was a successful good practices. The goal is to tion of the productivity, per- step in encouraging collabora- As far as methodological enable all Member States to formance and profitability of tion and creating synergies for development is concerned, take full advantage of existing foreign affiliates in comparison producing FATS. In parallel, a considerable progress has experience and to encourage to nationally controlled enter- joint regulatory framework for been achieved over the past all Member States to collect prises is currently hampered by the collection of FATS will be few years. These methodologi- data on FATS. the fact that foreign affiliates prepared that should ensure the cal developments have taken are compared with all national- stability of the data collection place in collaboration with Beyond these challenges lies ly controlled enterprises. and the participation of all other international organisa- the strive for completing the Whereas foreign affiliates gen- Member States. Given that tions and, in particular, with the statistics with additional erally belong to (relatively almost all Member States OECD. Nevertheless, rules for aspects of high relevance for large) trans-national enterprise already produce data in one allocating foreign affiliates to policy-makers, which have not groups, nationally controlled framework or the other, a full the country of control still need yet been addressed in the cur- enterprises include both inde- coverage of the EU seems within to be agreed for specific cases, rent data collection. Such infor- pendent enterprises, which reach. in particular enterprise groups mation relates mainly to three could be quite small, and enter- involving joint ventures, multiple aspects, the role of foreign affil- prises belonging to national 1. Within structural business statistics, minority ownership, holding iates in technology transfers groups. A valid interpretation of full data sets on FATS are available for Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, companies or natural persons. and R&D, the mode of entry these comparisons would how- Sweden and the United Kingdom, Based on the forthcoming into the economy (whether by ever presuppose comparing whereas more limited data sets are OECD Manual on globalisa- starting up new enterprises – so like with like, ie. to compare in available for Spain, Ireland and Italy. Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 24

In the following article, ANNE-CHRISTINE STRANDELL of Sweden’s ITPS – the Swedish Institute for Growth Policy Studies – outlines her views on the growing seamlessness of international business, its penetration in Sweden and how statistics needs to catch up. Globalisation at the service of growth lobalisation is mainly an about because of ownership ingly important factor. They Globalisation in the Gexpression for new and advantages, ie. internalising are often focused on becom- more complex relationships operations. ing bigger and bigger in land of the Vikings between trade and direct invest- order to face growing inter- ment as well as an increased The wave of acquisitions in national competition and Sweden has experienced a dependence between perform- the 1990s differs from the manage rising research and large increase in inward foreign ance of businesses within an previous rounds of the development costs as well as direct investment during the enterprise group but located in 1980s’. Before, deregulated concentrating resources on 1990s. At the end of 2000, different countries. capital markets made it easi- their company’s core compe- there were 5 500 foreign- er for companies to expand tencies. owned enterprises in Sweden, Today, the focus on globalisa- globally. Now, other driving employing almost 500 000 tion often relates to the forces for global expansion Companies are also streamlin- people. Foreign-owned enter- upward trend in direct invest- have become more impor- ing operations by reviewing prises accounted for 19% of the ment. The acceleration of tant. Company strategies, the efficiency of their global total employment in the Swedish mergers and acquisitions in for instance, are an increas- activities. This also results in business sector. the US and Western Europe is increased competition in glob- the principal motive behind al enterprise groups. Deregu- Foreign-owned enterprises in this trend. Eurostat’s Globalisa- Anne- lation in telecommunications Sweden accounted for 40% of tion Reflection Group used the as well as in the financial and total exports of goods and serv- following definition: The exis- Christine energy sectors has also ices from Sweden to other coun- tence of interactions between helped to increase direct tries, 34% of R&D expenditure enterprises residing in different Strandell investment. and 20% of turnover in the total countries which are related by is responsible for statis- business sector in 1999. In serv- other links than mere market, tics on international In the 1990s, market entry in ices, foreign-owned enterprises trade and their socio-economic business at ITPS as well Sweden and in other industri- accounted for more than half of consequences. alised countries seems to have Sweden’s exports. Manufactur- as analysis on globalisa- been dominated by the acqui- ing of pharmaceuticals and tion of firms and clus- sition of existing companies. motor vehicles are now dominat- Presence is essential ters. She is also the The principal patterns of inter- ed by foreign companies in Swedish delegate and national expansion, up to the Sweden, mainly due to the Increased direct investment 1960s, mainly consisted of acquisition of some very large vice-chairs the Statistical is, in many ways, associated greenfield investments. companies. with cross-border sales and Working Party of the the need for a physical pres- Committee of Industry An interesting issue is there- US owners clearly dominate as ence. For products that need and Business Environ- fore if different modes of entry regards share of employment, to be adapted locally, being such as greenfield investment turnover, value added, experts, ment and the Global- located near the customer is or acquisitions have different investments, R&D expenditure essential. Many types of serv- isation Session at the long-term impacts on the and personnel costs. The United ices can only be sold in other OECD, and expert on national economy in terms of Kingdom accounted for the sec- countries through direct foreign affiliates (FATS) employment and growth. ond highest share, ie. one third investment, that is, local pres- at Eurostat. She was also Even the basic question – the of all foreign-owned enterprises’ ence. For manufacturing com- extent of different modes of R&D spending in Sweden. In panies, direct investment is an expert in Eurostat’s market entry in different coun- terms of turnover, Finland was often a result of trade. Direct Globalisation Reflection tries – has not yet been com- the second most important for- investment can also come Group. pletely answered. eign owner. S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 25

ITPS is planning a project in Mode of entry in Sweden order to analyse the long-term ITPS in (stock at the end of 2000) impact on growth and employ- ment by considering different brief Mode Number Number modes of entry such as acquisi- of entry of enterprises of employees tion and greenfield investment. ITPS – the Swedish Institute Acquisition 2 700 290 900 … and what we for Growth Policy Studies – is Greenfield 1 300 55 800 would like to know a relatively young government authority, founded in January Merger 190 52 600 There are two main future chal- lenges for statistical providers: 2001, responsible for policy Joint venture 40 3 300 data should be more up to date intelligence, evaluation of and we should try to find out industrial and regional policy Don’t know 100 4 700 why these phenomena are hap- pening. Statistics and, especial- measures and official statistics No answer 990 29 600 ly, internationally harmonised in the areas of international data on globalisation are lag- ging behind. At the beginning of business, firm creation, sur- 2002, the latest data published vival of new firms and bank- on foreign affiliates in the EU ruptcy as well as on informa- Number of employees in covered five countries (Denmark, foreign-owned enterprises Finland, the Netherlands, tion and communication tech- Sweden and the UK) for the ref- nology related to the business 500 000 20,0 erence year 1998. Yet, dramat- sector. Its task is to provide a 450 000 18,0 ic changes have occurred since 400 000 16,0 1998 in the structure of cross- better knowledge base for a 350 000 14,0 border ownership. forward-looking growth policy 300 000 12,0 and an in-depth understand- 250 000 10,0 There is also an increasing inter- 200 000 8,0 est among politicians to obtain ing of how growth is created 150 000 6,0 more accurate comparisons and what factors adversely 100 000 4,0 between countries. The question 50 000 2,0 of relocation of businesses in affect growth. 0 0,0 Europe due to state subsidies is More information and the ITPS 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 also of growing importance as Employees Share of business sector competition among countries is reports are available on its increasingly attracting foreign website at www.itps.se Source: ITPS, International business. direct investment. Market entry modes such as greenfield invest- What we know … Several studies regarding the ment or acquisition – with its are also needed. Another sub- economic impact on the national long-term impact on employment ject that has not been complete- The main mode of market entry economy of foreign ownership and growth – is also an impor- ly surveyed is the relationship has been the acquisition of led to the conclusion that inward tant issue. At the same time, the between trade and investment. Swedish companies. In the pub- investment so far has had more public debate on the effects of Are they substituting or comple- lic debate, negative aspects of advantages than downsides1. increasing foreign ownership in menting each other? overseas ownership have domi- However, many studies only cov- Sweden is fuelled more by senti- nated. Worries have been ered a small sample survey of ment than concrete knowledge. That makes a bundle of ques- expressed that inward invest- foreign-owned companies and tions needing answers. But the ment by acquisitions might lead mainly in the manufacturing Several comparisons of foreign first priority must be to encour- to reductions in production and industry. Often, only a limited and national enterprises show age more EU countries to pro- employment or to the relocation number of variables have been that foreign enterprises are more vide basic harmonised data on of headquarters and other strate- analysed and some are just case efficient, on average, than globalisation such as the number gic functions. Recently, the clo- studies. Other studies have been national ones, ie. they have of employees and turnover relat- sures of some foreign-owned restricted to a cross-section higher value added per employ- ed to inward and outward manufacturing plants and possi- instead of an analysis over time. ee. There is still no explanation investment. ble relocation of these plants to for this difference, which is why 1. Strandell AC. 1999, ‘What are the other EU countries have been This is why more extensive more detailed studies of compa- impacts of direct investment on widely debated. analysis is needed and why rable categories of enterprises Sweden?’ (In Swedish only). Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 26

The OECD’s statistical wing is in much the same boat as other statistical organisations when it comes to tackling globalisa- tion, ie. how best to set about measuring the phenomenon. And it’s no plain sailing. Sigma’s Glen Campbell spoke to the OECD’s Chief Statistician, ENRICO GIOVANNINI, to get his thoughts on the issue and find out what they’re doing. “Fortune smiles on the best prepared”

he OECD – and to give gressive levels or subject according to whether they A difficult Tdue credit, its Directorate areas: product, firm, industry measure the extent and inten- for Science, Technology and and country. sity of globalisation, the phenomenon to Industry, responsible for impact of globalisation on capture globalisation and informa- They also distinguish betw- economic performance, or tion society statistics – has een three progressive dimen- globalisation’s tie-ins with Despite the OECD’s com- definitely got its head down sions of globalisation: trade, policies and structural mendable trade data and its on the development of glob- multinationalisation of pro- reforms. Because work on energies in developing trade alisation statistics. duction and technology the first category is the most in services data, its statistics transfer. These are present to advanced, the two last are a long way off from Apart from developing inter- varying degrees in different groups will be left out for the catching all these elements. national trade in services countries and interact with time being. The gaps, for example, in data – on which, the each other; some countries data for offshore production Statistics Directorate will pro- are at the first step and oth- They are also trying to ‘boil and technology and the duce for the first time a pub- ers already at the last. Says things down’ in their attempts abundant technical wrinkles lication with data by partner Mr Giovannini: “This makes at creating a core set of indi- make this crystal clear. I country – it has its fingers in the overall evaluation diffi- cators, bringing together, for asked Mr Giovannini why it other pies, too, such as cult, because we are often example, an aggregate of was so troublesome develop- migration, the internationali- having to compare apples exports and imports, portfo- ing these kinds of statistics. sation of information and with pears as far as models lio investments, inward and “The first snag is confiden- communication technology are concerned”. outward investment flows, tiality. What we need is data (ICT) and sustainable devel- share of production and linking firms between coun- opment, with the aim of employment under foreign tries, but strict rules govern- stretching statistics on a glob- Manual out soon control. ing data transfer between alised world beyond eco- institutions prevent this. The nomic statistics alone. A At the beginning of next year, Mr Giovannini hastens to only way to get this informa- point which Mr Giovannini the OECD will publish a man- point the spotlight on the tion is to ask the businesses feels strongly about. ual on economic globalisation efforts underway elsewhere – themselves, but they are indicators – providing a at all levels – such as the somewhat distrustful of statis- On globalisation, the OECD framework of methodological creation of a glossary of sta- ticians and give little away. draws principally on four sta- and statistical guidelines for tistical definitions taken by And when we can get our tistical areas: international constructing indicators on an the most important interna- hands on data, the question trade in goods and services; internationally harmonised tional manuals (ie. the system of reliability all too often the activity of multinational basis of use for policy-makers of National Accounts) to be rises to the surface. firms, and particularly the and for the systematic moni- released soon to help build activity of foreign affiliates in toring over time of the pro- up the OECD statistical infor- manufacturing and services gressive degree of worldwide mation system. In conjunction “The next problem concerns (FATS); foreign direct invest- economic integration. with Eurostat, they are also information on multinational ment and movement of peo- busy developing a joint glos- groups. Identifying certain ple. In addition, it is trying to Initially, they had intended to sary of metadata definitions groups is sometimes nigh measure the degree of glob- classify the globalisation to streamline effort. “We’re impossible. Although we alisation for at least four pro- indicators into three groups, all in this together”, he says. have statistics on enterprises S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 27

and businesses, we have somebody in India but deliv- Giovannini: “Japan, for the north-east is more glob- none on groups. What we ered by someone else in example, is a very glob- alised than the north-west need are statistical registers another country. In the area alised country beyond its even if the standard indica- to be able to indicate the of e-commerce we have borders, exporting products tors show the contrary?” To structure of groups, but developed guidelines that and investing worldwide, but avoid this sort of difficulty, again, registers are national- member states are using for then when you look at the Mr Giovannini prescribes ly-based and have no cross- surveys, but it is proving dif- domestic situation, it is not analysis of sectors or busi- linkages and so forth. ficult as long as statistics are nearly as porous. Again, nesses, particularly if we national.” although in the United States want to strive towards good, “In other cases, the difficulty about 40% of high-level man- reliable data. comes from the definition of Measuring ufacturing imports come from transactions, relationships, intra-firm trade, making it It is also difficult determining multinationals, e-commerce for what? globalised, you could have a the extent to which a coun- and so on. In today’s world, different situation at the try’s performance is due to it can be difficult establishing Its not easy saying whether a industry or firm level. globalisation. The OECD just who exactly is doing country or a region is glob- addressed this issue when it what, for example, if you buy alised or not. And looks can “Perhaps”, he continues, “it got down to work on the something managed by be deceiving. Says Mr is not very important to say manual but put it to one side whether a country is glob- because of the difficulty in alised or not. It gives no con- obtaining models to identify crete suggestion in terms of and estimate effects. policy-making or social analysis because it depends on which kind of globalisa- Footing the bill tion has been developed in a country. In view of this, the So much for the methodolog- future looks bleak for a single ical impediments. There is measure or globalisation also the nitty-gritty issue of index – sometimes canvassed resources, about which Mr as a yardstick.” Giovannini has no problem airing his views, drawing on Mr Giovannini also calls for a sort of comparative ‘statis- caution when thinking about tical resources history’. “Our using globalisation measure- main problem today is ments for ranking geographi- resources”, he affirms. “If we cally between regions or go back to the years after countries. He draws on his World War II, there was a own country’s experience: “If common effort to establish you look at data for the national accounts, implement north-west of Italy, the degree new surveys and instruments, of globalisation for business- annual and quarterly surveys es is considerably higher because of the enormous Enrico Giovannini (45) knows full well than for the north-east, which need to rebuild countries what globalisation means. Working in Paris at the OECD, he seems to be counter-intuitive. from the rubble. There was commutes each weekend to Rome to be with his family. Not What’s the point? The small plenty of money sloshing a statistician – in the strictest sense – but an economist, he enterprises active in the around both at the national started out at Istat in 1982 in the area of national accounts. north-east sell them to larger and international levels to After becoming Director of National Accounts, he then did a ones (mainly located in the provide the necessary stint as Director of Economic Statistics. north-west) who, in turn, sell resources. them abroad. Looking north, and stepping into the third millennium, “Today, we are perhaps fac- Paris was his next destination on 1 January 2001 at the “It is clear that the impact of ing a similar situation in OECD as Chief Statistician. In particular, he is the the international economic terms of the not unsimilarly Director of the Statistics Directorate and, as Chief cycle is higher for the nort- extensive mutations in our Statistician, he coordinates all statistical activities carried east than for the north-west societies – typified by global- out in other ‘substantive’ directorates. In 2001, he because, through larger isation and ICT. But our launched a ‘new OECD statistical strategy’ to improve enterprises, smaller ones are resources dwarf those of the the quality of OECD statistics and to enhance the effi- largely affected in their post-war period. In particu- ciency of the OECD statistical system. cycle. Does it then mean that lar, many countries’ statisti- Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 28

cal offices have seen huge and the development of ICT business practices in statisti- Eurostat – we have to base our budget cuts in the last decade techniques have been mak- cal information that would work on consensus and the qual- as a consequence of fiscal ing statistical organisations allow more efficient process- ity of our proposals and work. squeezing. think about setting up a glob- es for exchanging data and Indeed, people feel free to dis- al statistical system for some metadata. cuss new ideas in a mutually In fact, while the Maastricht years now, and it is already supportive environment, free of convergence criteria were taking root. But, what would The target is to explore binding agreements and regula- good for European integra- this ‘Worldstat’ or ‘Globe- common e-standards and stan- tions, and so on. tion, it was to mean a different stat’ look like and what dardisation activities to pro- story for statistics. Statistics would its impact be? mote efficiency and avoid Rome wasn’t built has become a high priority in duplication of work not only theory, but a sort of last prior- Mr Giovannini elucidates: “I for the organisations behind in a day ity in practice. And this, just don’t think it will be a physi- the initiative but for everyone – when we need to develop new cal organisation based some- public and private – involved “This helps us search around for concepts and instruments to where governing statistics, in the field of statistical infor- “not yet official statistics” – adapt to our changed world. but rather a state-of-the-art mation. According to Mr Gio- especially in emerging issues system – combining interna- vannini, this would mean a where the official variety is thin “Although we are getting tional fora and ICT – for shar- “revolution in exchanging data on the ground – and offers a more resources to finance ing databases and ideas and metadata”. way of nudging official statistics forward, admittedly with some risks. Electronic commerce is a A click away … efforts are good example. The first figures underway to usher in a presented by some business revolution in exchanging associations seemed to show that B2C (business to consumer) data and metadata which trade accounted for a signifi- would combine cant part of consumption. This was their stellarly spectacular international fora and ICT. version. Now, in countries where you have electronic com- merce statistics up and running, according to common stan- dards and definitions, you have a much lower and more down- to-earth ‘0.something’ figure. This brings home the fact that you have to use all the infor- mation available – even of poor quality – to encourage the development of reliable more projects, the main prob- according to common stan- Where freedom surveys.” lem is that they are often dards, developing common granted for a given timeframe, infrastructures such as glos- is good Mr Giovannini knows full well corresponding to govern- saries, methodologies and that his ancestors’ empire took ments’ policy information metadata. Basically, thinking Generally, it is widely acknowl- some time to build, just as he needs, in which there is no globally.” edged that the OECD enjoys a accepts that globalisation sta- time to provide satisfactory reputation for collaboration at tistics won’t be built up in a results because of legal hic- Work along these lines is international level, working day. But he is still a little impa- cups and methodological already underway. The Bank closely with Eurostat, the IMF tient. He acknowledges the quandaries. What we need is of International Settlements and the UN Statistical Division. progress made so far, but long-term investment for new (BIS), the European Central And, according to Mr there is still much to do. His statistical infrastructures.” Bank (ECB), Eurostat, the Giovannini, this situation is actu- last plea: “More resources International Monetary Fund ally aided by the comparative and a long-term vision, (IMF), the OECD, and the advantage it enjoys in having no please”. Clearly, the tomor- Introducing UN Statistical Division have legal capacity to impose rowland of globalisation statis- ‘Worldstat’ teamed together in a task demands on countries. Sounds tics depends on this twin force called SDMX – strange? Mr Giovannini elabo- request, and fortune usually Well, maybe, but let’s not get Statistical Data and Meta- rates: “because we don’t have has the habit of smiling on the carried away … Globalisation data Exchange – to focus on much legal clout – unlike best prepared. S IGMA 1/2002 Statistics and Globalisation 29

Last but not least, PAOLO PASSERINI of Eurostat’s direct investment unit takes a quantitative snapshot of FDI and explains what this fashionable abbreviation is all about. How can FDI help us?

he second half of the 1990s Tand the year 2000 saw a prolonged wave of international mergers and acquisitions that pushed FDI capital invested worldwide to unprecedented highs. In search of competitive advantage and new profit opportunities, firms have been increasing their scale interna- tionally, forming new strategic alliances and acquiring priva- tised public enterprises in devel- oping countries. “… what emerges is the All sectors of activity have been touched by this surge in FDI, but increased interdependency financial intermediation, and reciprocity …” telecommunication and business services were activities in which direct investment was particular- the EU by extra-EU multination- FDI tend to concentrate reversed their traditional role ly intense. 2000 FDI will, how- als was also strong (20% per within developed coun- of main net world supplier and ever, represent a relative peak of year on average), although it tries became a net recipient of FDI this investment wave, as avail- remained below that of stocks flows. The great majority of able statistics indicate a slow- abroad (27%). At the end of With a share steadily around this investment came, in fact, down of activity in 2001 in a 2000, the EU had a positive net 90% of the total, developed from the EU, whereas the general context of a less favor- FDI position of 432 bn EUR. countries have traditionally been growth of Japanese investment able investment climate. the main suppliers of FDI capital, was much slower. The majority of FDI funds but their importance as recipi- EU as the main actor received by Member States ents has also grown consider- As a result, what emerges is came, however, from other ably since 1998. The share of the increased interdependency FDI statistics show that the EU is Member States, especially in investment received by countries and reciprocity between the playing a major role in this 1999 and 2000 when intra- outside the OECD fell and EU and the USA concerning process. Peaking in 2000 at EU investment reached reached a minimum at 32% in FDI relationships. At the end of 362 bn EUR (4.3% of EU GDP), exceptional levels of 4.2% 2000, having stayed at approx- 2000, the USA held 60% of EU FDI outflows were in recent and 7.7% of the EU’s GDP imately 50% before 1998. FDI assets invested in the EU, years consistently close to half of respectively. and the EU held 65% of FDI the world total1. Between 1995 The big players: EU and assets invested in the USA. and 2000, the stock of FDI cap- What’s the message? USA are becoming This happened in a general ital invested in EU affiliates locat- stronger while Japan is context in which FDI activity is ed outside the EU tripled. At the Apart from showing the overall losing ground polarised (one way or the end of 2000, the EU had over- quantitative aspect related to the other) around these two major taken the United States in terms extraordinary growth in the Within developed countries, players, while Japan plays a of FDI stocks abroad and held a amounts of capital invested, FDI the importance of the USA as less important role than it did value equivalent to 18.5% of its statistics can be used to grasp a recipient of FDI flows in the recent past. In 1996, GDP (some 12% for the USA). some interesting characteristics increased substantially during Japan held 15% of the FDI of the present phase of develop- the ‘90s, peaking at 41% of stocks invested abroad by the Over the same period, the ment in international investment, the world total in 1999. With Triad, while in 1999 it had growth in FDI stocks invested in particularly of the EU. this evolution, the USA only 8%. Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 30

What is FDI? However, once the relationship with the affili- The detection of indirect FDI links, neces- the aftermath of the financial ated enterprise is established, all types of cap- sary to assure a full coverage for direct crises and gradually resumed lthough they do not give information on ital subsequently supplied by the mothercom- investment variables, requires detailed afterwards. Athe activity of the affiliates in which cap- pany (or direct investor) or by other affiliates and updated information about the own- ital is invested (see article on page 21), of the mothercompany are recorded as FDI – ership structure (above the 10% thresh- Intra-EU FDI is a powerful statistics on FDI are one of the more com- including debt financing between affiliates of old) of multinational enterprises and engine for EU integration plete and timely indicators on the evolution the same owner and non-distributed profits groups of enterprises. and direction of the investment made by made by the various affiliates that are direct- The years 1999 and 2000 – multinational enterprises. ly or indirectly owned. The difficulty of the task and the immediately after the introduc- intrinsically transnational nature of the tion of the single currency – Data for the EU aggregates and for the FDI statistics exist for: subject matter require additional cooper- were boom years for intra-EU Member States are available on an annual ◗ Capital flows: value of capital invested dur- ation and exchange of information on FDI, marking a clear accelera- basis for both inward and outward investment ing the year. the part of statisticians, both inside their tion in this dimension of EU for the period 1992-2000. Data are disaggre- ◗ Stocks: value of accumulated capital held national countries and between different economic integration. Big gated by partner country (investor or destina- invested at the end of the year. countries. operations related to mergers tion country for inward and outward, respec- ◗ Income: profits made by the affiliate, which and acquisitions significantly tively) and by sector of activity. are recorded as a proportion of the per- The role Eurostat is already playing is to reshaped the ownership struc- centage of the affiliate’s equity capital in act as a catalyst in this process: inside the ture of major EU enterprises, Within balance of payments accounts, FDI the hands of the mothercompany. EU, to foster cooperation and exchange of particularly in telecommunica- is distinguished from portfolio investment information inside and between Member tions and financial intermedia- and from other types of investment because Can we do better? States; outside the EU, in the relations tion. In 2000, the acquisition it requires the investor’s intention of holding with other international organisations of the German telecommuni- a lasting interest and at least a certain Although EU FDI statistics have certainly active in this statistical field, such as the cation giant Mannesmann by degree of influence in the management of reached a high level of quality, the ever- OECD and UNCTAD. the British Vodafone Air Touch the enterprise that is acquired. An interna- increasing complexity of group structures involved an investment of tional investment is thus conventionally and financial arrangements put in place for Because one thing is very clear: measuring above 170 bn EUR – the classified as FDI if the investor acquires at financing international investment poses globalisation requires sharing statistical highest amount ever regis- least 10% of the enterprise’s equity capital. important challenges for FDI statisticians. information internationally much more. tered for a single deal.

Services are increasingly EU investments to other ers in which it substantially stag- However, growth was much dominant in FDI countries concentrate in nated. Among the former, South slower in Africa as a whole (with selected areas America and the group of 13 the exception of some Northern The major tendency dis- Candidate Countries clearly African countries) and even played by FDI data by kind Looking at the investment by the stand out as far as EU investment slower in Oceania, with both of activity is the increasing two major world economies in is concerned. Between 1996 continents coming to represent a dominance of the services other countries shows that there and 2000, the growth in FDI marginal part of EU FDI assets at sector as the preferred target were some areas where FDI stocks held by the EU was in the end of 2000. Investment to for foreign investors. Repre- grew at very fast rates and oth- both cases around 400-500%. Far East Asia halted in 1998 in senting already 60% of end- 1999 stocks, services account- ed for 74% of 2000 invest- FDI stocks as a percentage of GDP – EU and USA ment flowing to the EU. Besides financial intermediation and telecommunication services, investment in the EU trade sec- tor was also sustained.

On the outward side, a similar tendency could be observed, although the relative weight of services was still 50% of stocks at the end of 2000. Moreover, there was impor- tant investment in utilities (elec- tricity, gas and water) held in developing countries by EU

Source: Eurostat, BEA multinationals, and in the pri- mary sector (mining and quar- 1. Intra-EU FDI (ie. investment from one Member State to another) is treated separately and excluded from world totals and EU data. rying activity). S IGMA 1/2002 Profiles – looking eastwards 31

In anticipation of the next wave of enlargement, Sigma starts a new series of profiles. From now on, each issue will contain profiles of two statistical offices of future EU members, to help readers understand the systems and meet the people that will help shape tomorrow’s statistical system. Poland – the biggest of the Candidate Countries – was the first on our map. Sigma’s Barbara Jakob met TADEUSZ TOCZYNSKI´ , President of GUS, Poland’s Central Statistical Office, in Warsaw.

hen the iron curtain Wbetween western and eastern block countries began Statistics Poland – to crack in 1989, nobody could have possibly imagined that the course of events would pick up such high speed. ready for take-off What was clear, however, was that – given the complete change from one system to another – a rocky road would lie ahead of statistics to adapt to Western standards.

When Eurostat’s Director- General, Yves Franchet, first visited GUS in 1989, Poland’s application for EU member- ship – which was putting fur- ther pressure on the statistical system to adapt quickly – was not yet a matter of discussion.

Today, thinking of the unfavourable starting point, one can only acknowledge Plac Zamkowy – the entrance to the old town in Warsaw, the willingness to learn and which was destroyed in World War II and rebuilt adjust, and the speed at which this happened. The Commission’s report on Making a fresh start widely. This terminology ques- Europe not only because they Poland’s progress towards tion was an additional obsta- have profiteded from training accession recognises that “It was a tough start”, Mr cle for understanding each courses but also because although a few areas Toczynski admits, “for the other and generally added to they have invested a lot per- remain in which further work first five years of coopera- the language problem. When sonally and worked hard to is required, “Poland is well tion, we were doing nothing it came to visiting Eurostat for catch up. advanced in the field of sta- but listening. For quite a the first time, Mr Toczynski tistics”. while, there was mainly one- recalls that a major difficulty Shock strategy sided technical assistance was the question whether Talking to the President of the and we were unable to con- someone could accompany Introducing about 30 classifica- Polish Central Statistical Office tribute to discussion.” him, capable of discussing tions relevant for EU statistics (GUS), Tadeusz Toczynski, one methodological questions in a was another major challenge, as rapidly learns that it is their pride The difficulties that Polish stat- foreign language. Mr Toczynski explains, which to adjust swiftly. “We are very isticians had to face during added to the requirement of keen on doing all the work these first years were of a That was the past. Today, dealing with sample surveys – required to bring our statistics diverse nature. First of all, the around 400 people are able something rather unusual in sta- into line with the acquis commu- statistical language used in to converse in foreign lan- tistics for the planned economy nautaire and avoid making use Eastern and Western guages and join working par- where exhaustive surveys pre- of transformation periods.” European countries differed ties and seminars all over dominated. That said, exhaus- Profiles – looking eastwards S IGMA 1/2002 32

tive surveys were undoubtedly Balcerowicz prescribed the price shock, GUS provided new Kasakhstan, Ukraine, Armenia, much easier to carry out – with shock strategy for the economy inflation figures every ten days. Georgia and Azerbaijan. a total of around 80 000 with the effect of a quick enterprises – than today increase in prices – determined The second priority, to get GUS has profited, itself, from a where there are some the statistical priorities. So, price acquainted and learn everything number of bi- and multilateral 3 200 000 economic units. statistics were adjusted first in about national accounts, was a statistical cooperation projects order to be able and measure conscious decision. Although and from technical assistance The course of events – the Polish the tremendous inflationary pres- GUS had always provided under the Phare programme. economist and politician Leszek sure in those days. During the national accounts data to the Initially created in 1989 to sup- United Nations, the common sys- port reforms in Poland and tem in planned economies was Hungary, it became the EU’s the Material Product System general aid programme to coun- (MPS) – a completely different tries in transition and an instru- approach to national accounts. ment to support the pre-acces- sion strategy. In this framework, National accounts are said to be GUS worked, for example, with the heart of statistics and GUS INSEE on regional statistics, and shared this view. So the first deci- is starting a project with the sion was to get the manuals Federal Statistical Office of translated and the staff trained in Germany (Destatis) on statistical national accounts methodology. information systems covering a Certainly a very wise decision – number of statistical fields. It today, national accounts are has also worked closely with regarded as one of GUS’s the US and Canadian statistical strengths. services.

“We also had to get used to the Taking wings fact that our main user was no longer exclusively the govern- The best proof of successful tran- ment but the society at large”, sition is that relatively few statisti- Mr Toczynski says, adding, “all cal fields remain untended. “There’s nothing exciting about it”, in all, we didn’t have that many Intrastat is one of these areas, Tadeusz Toczynski says modestly when I ask him about difficulties adjusting. Our office but naturally, since it is the sys- his career. was, already during the commu- tem to replace the customs dec- nist regime, rather independent laration for trade statistics within After graduating from the Central School of Planning and and the interventions of the sta- the Common Market, it cannot Statistics in 1974, Mr Toczynski stepped directly into offi- tistical agency in Moscow, which be introduced until the moment cial statistics working in GUS’ industry statistics division coordinated all statistical activi- of accession. where he was mainly occupied with analytical work. ties, were limited to standard classifications and ensuring However, Mr Toczynski reports At the beginning of the 80s, he gathered experience at statistical comparability. We that they are doing everything the UN Statistical Commission and the General were not as cut off as one to be well prepared. Legislation Economic Analysis Division of the UNECE (Economic might think.” on administrative aspects such Commission for Europe). Returning to Poland three as the distribution of tasks between ministries and the sta- years later, he started to climb up the ladder step by step, Helping and tistical agency is underway. The first as Head of Section, then as Head of Division and, being helped technical and methodological later, as Vice-President with a pause from 1992 until Now that the changeover of sta- aspect needs further attention, 1995 when he left the world of official statistics and tistics has been successfully man- and GUS hopes that Eurostat dived into the world of private business. aged and European partners will soon publish a manual certify that Poland is no longer describing the procedures of all In 1996, he followed the call of the Government to an apprentice of Western statisti- EU countries so that it can emu- become President of the Central Statistical Office. His cal methods, GUS feels that it late the best practices for its second and last term – the Polish statistical law provides should pass on what it has own system. for a maximum of two terms of office – will last until received in terms of technical 2008. Until then, he hopes to have lifted Polish statistics assistance and help others. In And Mr Toczynski is very confi- to a level above the European average – an ambition fact, GUS provides assistance to dent that GUS will be able to which his principle, “never stop learning”, doubtlessly a number of former Soviet coun- cope with all the difficulties that helps to achieve. tries such as Russia, Belarus, might arise. Not only can they S IGMA 1/2002 Profiles – looking eastwards 33

HISTORICAL NOTE he history of Polish statistics is closely A first yearbook, Statystyka Polski, was Tconnected with the political history of issued in 1915. Poland. Today’s statistical office finds its roots in the establishment of the Central The diverse partitions of Poland Statistical Office (GUS) in August 1918, just between its neighbours Russia, Austria before Poland regained independence – and Prussia, political upheavals and the which only lasted 20 years – after more two world wars made a linear develop- than one century of occupation. ment of Polish statistics extremely diffi- cult. Yet Poland has a rich statistical his- Statistical tradition, however, is much tory – a wide range of historical refer- older than that and goes back to a pop- ences that GUS presents in its library ulation census in 1789, among the first date back to between 500 and 600 to be conducted in Europe. The begin- years. ning of the 19th century saw the estab- lishment of the Statistical Bureau of the Interestingly, statistical publications at Kingdom of Warsaw – which could be the beginning of the 20th century were seen as the predecessor of today’s GUS. Beata Jakubczak, interpreting in the interview, points to some historical documents issued both in Polish and French. fall back on the experience of of Internal Affairs and tive data is an important priori- problems not so much different the EU countries, the trade data Administration is responsible ty for the years to come. from those encountered in EU in the planned economy were for implementing a central countries. also directly collected from com- register of vehicles, which A large load is taken off the panies with a system quite simi- GUS intends to use for trans- back of respondents at the end The difficulty in making full and lar to Intrastat. In addition, port statistics. of the year when the last old optimal use of the information Intrastat is also subject of coop- product classification will be contained in administrative reg- eration projects with Destatis Apart from public finances, abolished and replaced by an isters seems to be less the access and Statistics Sweden. the homework in national EU-compatible one. Businesses of statistics to these sources – the accounts is done. GUS pro- are no longer forced to use two Polish statistical law provides for Agricultural statistics is anoth- vides annual and quarterly different product classifications, this – but their coordination and er area requiring further national accounts data in line which is currently the case the sheer number of different adjustment and, in some with ESA95 (European System because the old classification is sources. cases, expansion, given the of National Accounts, 1995 still valid for tax purposes, importance of agriculture in version) methodology includ- whereas it has been replaced in An almost perfect EU policy and the role it plays ing an estimate of the non- all other fields. match … in the Polish economy. observed economy. The methodology being consistent, But alleviation on one side is Mr Toczynski’s working priorities Independent yet GUS is now fine-tuning certain accompanied by aggravation and the perceptions of their own dependent aspects such as the seasonal on another. The administrative weaknesses that need to be tack- adjustment methods of GDP business register REGON, led seem to match with Eurostat’s Other sectors such as public and aims at reducing the time which is currently used for sta- and the Commission’s assess- finances are subject to coop- lag in delivering the data to tistical purposes, is to be ment. And moreover, GUS’ eration between GUS and Eurostat, which is currently replaced by the end of the President can find no discrep- other government institutions, several days behind EU year by a court register with ancies between the EU’s statisti- more concretely, the National Member States. reduced information. cal objectives and the national Bank and the Ministry of priorities: Finance. Progress here often GUS’ President seems to be well This means a significant chal- depends on political decisions aware of the weaknesses of lenge for GUS, which is in the “A particular national need was to be taken, eg. on the tax or Polish statistics and makes no process of creating a statistical social data. As a heritage of the fiscal system, or on methods attempt to sweep them under the business register based on infor- planned economy we had no and classifications to be carpet. He points to another cru- mation from administrative social statistics to speak of. applied. For example, the cial aspect in modern statistics, sources. Along with finding alter- Providing such information was Ministry of Finance is currently the use of registers. Although he native sources for some informa- therefore an important task, but working on adjusting the cal- assures that enterprises don’t tion contained in REGON, it was not really in contradiction culation methods for the non- explain about the response bur- matching data from different to the EU programme which, financial accounts of govern- den being too high as is the administrative sources using a although more focussed on eco- ment institutions to European case in Western European unique identification code are nomic statistics, also covers the standards, and the Ministry countries, the use of administra- the most crucial aspects – social area.” Profiles – looking eastwards S IGMA 1/2002 34

… with room for Since this is not an exclusive the use of common concepts Thinking of an enlarged EU Polish problem, GUS plans – rather than ex-post harmonisa- with more than 20 member improvement together with other European sta- tion. Looking at best practices countries, it seems reasonable tistical offices at their next and learning from the pre- and vital if we want to avoid But what he would wish to see meeting in Luxembourg – to dominance of certain offices becoming a clumsy, immov- is to better coordinate the dif- introduce a proposal for creat- in some areas is for him more able body.” ferent demands of internation- ing a special data network or a chance for progress than a al institutions. “Eurostat’s a one-stop-shop, from which threat to individual identity. Tadeusz Toczynski is certainly needs are clear and they are these international requests a European by conviction served first, but the story does- would be satisfied, a kind of “The work in the working and somebody who is ready n’t end here. There is UNECE, unified system of local data- groups should be more to invest himself fully in the the OECD and others with bases, which would be fed by focussed and problem-orient- process and play an active similar, slightly or completely the NSIs. ed and, above all, more effi- part in designing a common different requests and we have cient”, he claims. “Creating European future for statistics. to deliver data on the basis of At European level, Mr Tocz- working groups of leading And there is one more lesson a different methodological ynski sees further room for countries which deal with spe- to learn from this interview: background”, Mr Toczynski enhancing the comparability cific topics would certainly modesty and self-confidence explains. of data and turning more to lead to such efficiency gains. can be good bedfellows.

Facts and ...... figures about Polish statistics

he main, although not the only, producer of Polish official statis- ith around 7400 staff, GUS is a fairly large organisation – larger than Ttics is the Central Statistical Office (GUS) which is at the heart of Wmost Western European countries are accustomed to. Almost 90% of the statistical system. Ministries and the National Bank are other staff work in the regional offices which are represented in each of the 16 actors providing certain types of statistical information. GUS’s pres- Polish voivodships. GUS also has its own statistical computing centre, pub- ident, who is directly answerable to the Prime Minister, fulfils a coor- lishing house and two training centres. dinating role in preparing a draft statistical programme and devel- oping classification standards and nomenclatures. The regional offices, under the direct responsibility of the president of GUS, conduct the surveys and carry out other basic statistical operations. But as a The statistical law from 1995 sets out the responsibilities of the specific feature of the Polish system, each regional office is also responsible president of GUS and the provision for a Statistical Council. As an for a certain aspect of statistics, which is undertaken in coordination with the independent opinion-making and advisory body whose members appropriate division of the central office. are appointed by the Prime Minister, it makes recommendations to the draft annual programme set up by the president of GUS (con- Population 38.6 mio taining around 250 statistical surveys) and advises the Prime Statistical GUS Regional Minister on statistical matters. system overall central office offices Number of staff 7 361 825 6 536 Statistics in Poland are well embedded in legal provisions which reg- ulate all official surveys in detail. Each statistical inquiry, change of Share of women 84% 78% 87% programme or standards requires a legal instrument and is subject Tertiary education 33% 71% 29% to parliamentary control. This also implies that the budget is strict- ly laid down and allocated to specific purposes and surveys. Staff aged 30 and below 18% 16% 20% Commissioned work is also possible but plays a marginal role for the time being. The regular budget for GUS is around 65 million GUS shows a very active dissemination activity using all modern media euro and higher when – as is the case this year – censuses are car- such as the Internet, CD-ROM and paper. For a few years now, all basic ried out. statistics are published in two languages, Polish and English. Following its policy of statistics as a free basic service and the fact that statistical data should, therefore, be free of charge, the price for publications usually cov- www.stat.gov.pl ers publishing costs only.

Recruitment problems, which could arise because payment in official sta- tistics is not as attractive as in the private sector, are currently being out- weighed by relatively high unemployment – and the President’s private management approach: “Respect people’s different characteristics while encouraging openness for everything, because we need specialists with a comprehensive way of thinking.” S IGMA 1/2002 Profiles – looking eastwards 35

Travelling westwards, our next stop is the Czech Team work

Republic where MARIE BOHATÁ – President of Of course, as the Czech the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) – spoke to proverb in the title suggests, it was no mean feat getting Sigma’s Glen Campbell. there. Ms Bohatá shows no shame in saying that their les- son books were open all the time, adding that the Phare “ No learned Statistical Programme class notes on technical assistance were well thumbed, particu- larly for its preparations for person falls EU membership. Like other Candidate Countries, the CZSO hasn’t been alone and “left to get on with it”. Far from the sky” from that. Indeed, Ms Bohatá congratu- rague is a city brimming from a planned to a market acquis; and allowing for lates Eurostat on its support- Pwith contradictions, of economy. And it has had to some historical comparabili- ive work in terms of technical which the most conspicuous is rise to a great deal of chal- ty. Quite a tall order. But assistance and facilitating perhaps the urban landscape. lenges as a result, from over- they’ve done it. exchange of experience on arching legal and organisa- bi- or multilateral bases, and On the one hand, Charles tional issues right down to The Czech statistical system on its partnership approach. Bridge, the Castle and data collection techniques already complies with the Says Ms Bohatá: “We have Wenceslas Square offer a and data sources. bulk of the statistical acquis always been seen as part- feast for the eyes. But on the other, not far away from the historical centre, there are Prague’s historical centre backstreets of non-descript houses and high-rise flats where economic hardship makes its presence felt.

The Czech Statistical Office finds itself in just such an area. And it occupies very humble offices.

But looks can be deceiving. Behind this humble facade, I discovered a hive of activity and excellence – testimony to the Office’s determination to produce quality statistics for the Czech Republic and in preparation for its forth- coming accession to the EU.

Like other former Communist According to Marie Bohatá, and is expected to comply ners, never as students at the countries, the Czech statisti- their transformation has with everything by the end of back of a lecture theatre. cal system has seen its fair boiled down to three main this year. From statistical cov- And this has been very share of changes since the goals: meeting the informa- erage to modern dissemina- important psychologically for fall of the Berlin Wall – fol- tion needs of a democratic tion techniques – you name it us in our work”. In addition, lowing the sweeping politi- society and a market econo- – Czech statistics will compare she also adds that working cal and economic changes my; developing statistics in well with the systems in the with other Candidate Coun- with the country’s switchover line with the EU’s statistical current EU Member States. tries has been a bonus par- Profiles – looking eastwards S IGMA 1/2002 36

ticularly for avoiding the mis- still unsolved – with implications Despite the Czech Republic’s with the media and the public, takes made by others. for what statistics the system long and respected tradition anticipating their queries and can and cannot collect. in demographic statistics and fears. Instead, we foolishly So what have some of the the CZSO’s efforts to obtain waited until the problems problems been? Ms Bohatá is A lesson positive media coverage, the came to the surface – attract- quick to refer to the census press and television mounted ing unfair flak. But in a way, that provided the first full- in public and a very negative campaign we could say that it was a cri- blown test of the statistics sys- media relations against the census, fomenting sis waiting to happen. One of tem. One large mountain to distrust among the public at the legacies of the former cen- climb was data protection Apart from legal quandaries, large – a problem compound- trally planned regime was where conflicts arose the census provided the Office ed by the fledgling but fuzzy exactly this lack of information between the law on the cen- with the first opportunity to legal framework. activity. We just churned out sus – censuses require a spe- present itself above all to the data with little thought about cial law in the Czech public, and was a real test But Ms Bohatá recognises full the users and respondents Republic – and the infant law particularly in terms of win- well what went wrong in the themselves.” on data protection. They had ning public confidence on run-up to the census: “Looking to go to the constitutional data confidentiality and work- back, we weren’t prepared But the CZSO was not going court, and the problems are ing with the media. enough in terms of dealing to let the media pull the plug on the census so lightly. Ms Bohatá rose to the challenge, personally appearing on the evening news with carefully crafted and articulated decla- rations to the media along the lines of “I guarantee your data will be protected”.

What’s more, as a result of unforeseen problems in data collection, she also went to the data collection points, where people could personally hand in their completed census forms, to speak to respondents and win their trust.

After the census, the office also plucked up the courage to have a poll conducted asking respondents two questions, roughly translating as: “Do you Marie Bohatá is the first woman With an econometrics degree and a PhD up see the survey as an interfer- to make it to the highest rank of manager her sleeve, Marie Bohatá has pursued an ence of the Statistical Office and the first female president at the CZSO – energetic career in economic, research and into your privacy” and “Are an accomplishment when you consider that, business circles, working in research and you confident that the Statistical although the statistics offices of the former economic institutes in the Czech Republic. Office will protect your data”. Communist Candidate Countries had many She is also Associate Professor for To the CZSO’s satisfaction, the women staff, management posts were usually Economics at Prague’s Charles University. results obtained drastically occupied by men. Her pet subject is business ethics to which improved from answers given she has contributed widely at national and before the census, with substan- The motivation for her taking up the post of international levels. tial positive shifts in the confi- president, says Ms Bohatá: “I wanted to dence of young people. make statistics more user-friendly and boost Speaking commendable, self-taught the analytical and interpretative role of Czech English, she is classical music-lover, enjoys Such contact, clarity and solem- statistics. As a newcomer or outsider, or both, hiking and mushroom picking. With nity obviously paid off very I thought that I could relook at “things that Prague’s constant flow of music festivals handsomely in trust-building; have always been done that way” and ask and plenty of woodland, what better way to the media and the public finally questions that colleagues on the inside may wind down after getting Czech statistics came round to accept that the not have been to see in the same way”. ready for EU accession! CZSO could keep their person- S IGMA 1/2002 Profiles – looking eastwards 37

Facts and figures gramme of statistical surveys and is responsi- Key statistical data ble for classifications, nomenclatures and the The Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) exists at the methodology of statistical surveys. It compris- Population: 10.3 million core of the State Statistical Service, set up by the es four so-called ‘sectors’: Statistics; Adminis- State Statistical Service Act in 1995 and inde- trative; Statistical System Development; Staff: pendent from government. Regions and Information Outputs. State Statistical Service (overall): 3 700 Functioning in a decentralised system, the CZSO After administrative changes and streamlining in of which CZSO 1 866 works alongside the Czech National Bank the statistical system’s network, the CZSO now (responsible for monetary and balance of pay- has just regional offices in each of the country’s of which regions 1 176 ments statistics), the Ministry of Finance (respon- 14 administrative regions. The regional offices sible for government financial statistics) as well are responsible for dissemination and fieldwork, Average age: 45 years as a handful of other agencies. and will provide statistical support to the region- Women: 75% al authorities. In addition, there are six nation- Playing a vital coordinating and methodologi- wide processing departments which each look of which in management positions: 47% cal role, the CZSO is responsible for preparing, after data processing for a specific topic, eg. with the appropriate ministries, the pro- agricultural statistics. Graduates: 31.5% al data under lock and key. She explains. This is where the statistical issues. In addition, being independent, we need hopes to build on this experi- Czech Statistical Council as part of the CZSO’s user out- to step back and ask ourselves ence for winning the public’s comes into play. Established reach strategy, it is also con- whom we are accountable to. support especially for social by the State Statistical Act, it is ducting a special survey Is it the general public? In our data – an area that depends on the CZSO’s advisory body among users about their Statistical Act, no responsibili- household surveys and house- and includes members from requirements, and meets regu- ties of the Council are holds’ participation. And an ministries, academic institu- larly with trade associations defined. So far, the Council area in which they still have tions, business and ‘experts in and ministries. has just been an advisory some way to go in redesigning statistical theory and prac- body, but we could be made the Household Budget Survey tice’. But as Ms Bohatá … to accountability accountable to it.” (HBS) and developing social emphasises, “it still has some protection accounts. teething problems such as the and impartiality According to Ms Bohatá, the absence of trade unions and statistical system enjoys full From listening NGOs”. Their goal is to enlist The role of the Czech independence, free from polit- their participation. Statistical Council raises, for ical interference: “We only go to users … Ms Bohatá, the question of to our government for budget The Council’s chief role is to accountability. In her view, it purposes; no more is asked of Learning to listen to users was advise on the programme of could play a greater role: “If us.” However, she admits that also a novelty, Ms Bohatá surveys and on other basic we really are serious about the lack of a civil service law regulating appointment, em- ployment and dismissal is a major shortcoming. Currently, she is appointed by the President of the Czech Republic on the basis of a gov- ernment proposal, but she can also be fired by him if the gov- ernment proposes.

Moreover, the question of presidency terms has been dis- cussed and she suspects that a fixed term presidency is more effective: “It seems that every- thing in statistics takes some time. It took me two years to see what the statistical field was about, also because I was an outsider. You clearly Profiles – looking eastwards S IGMA 1/2002 38

need time before you start see- Sticky data A ‘chequered’ ing results – some three years.” collection To iron out the remaining administrative creases, a Civil And what about the issue of history Service Law should be adopted data collection? “Our work by the end of this year. is totally different now”, Ms Bohatá says, pointing to a he statistical service of former Czechoslovakia was set Young and table showing three more zeros to the number of up only a few months after the country’s declaration T highly skilled, reporting entities for the busi- of independence in 1919. Between the two world wars, please apply ness register; before they the service went from strength to strength with almost had two thousand, now there half (!) of its effort devoted to scientific and theoretical Looking at the CZSO’s staff are some two million. This points the spotlight on some of has led to an enormous activities in the 1920s and 30s. the staffing and recruitment response burden given the challenges the CZSO is facing. number and exhaustiveness However, this bright, promising heyday was only to occu- With an age pyramid looking of surveys – a legacy of the py a small portion of the last century, with things taking more like a flattened diamond past regime. “The response a negative about-turn in the war and the ensuing (the average age is 45), a rela- rate didn’t used to be an Communist regime. For some four decades, this twenty- tive skills deficit and a high pro- issue, but now it definitely portion of women staff, today’s is”, she affirms. year old statistical service would receive repeated, damag- mainly three-pronged recruit- ing blows. Under the Soviet regime from 1948, the statis- ment policy aims to take on Updating the register has tical office was merely assigned the organisatory role of younger and more highly- clearly become a top priority, monitoring the performance of enterprises against the skilled staff and redress the gen- all the more so because any- der balance. thing up to a third of the enti- economic plan. ties registered could be inac- Ms Bohatá elaborates: “Today’s tive, not speaking of registra- Between 1969 and 1992, there were three statistical problem goes back to the previ- tions and misclassifications. offices with strictly defined powers: the Federal Statistical ous centrally-planned system What’s more, the reliability Office, the Czech Statistical Office and the Slovak where our statistical system – and timeliness of national Statistical Office. More and more, the political choice was mainly monitory in nature – did accounts data have suffered not require highly-skilled staff. as a result of the weaknesses to relegate the basic principles of statistical work to the We simply didn’t need to con- in the sampling base. The backseat; unsurprisingly, the quality of statistics was to struct samples or use sophisti- slate, therefore, needs to be decline, especially in the area of methodology. cated techniques, so there was wiped clean before ushering no great need for teams of spe- in, for example, sampling But the political events of 1989 heralded a brighter future cialists. With so much stan- techniques, which offer a for the service. An independent Czech Republic was cre- dardisation and compliance faster, reliable alternative to with the EU’s statistical acquis, exhaustive surveys. ated in 1993, the Federal Statistical Office was disman- we need more highly-skilled tled, and the new Czech Statistical Office assumed the staff – and fast.” But things have been look- powers and responsibilities of a single national statistical ing up since last January institute. The next major milestone was to be in 1995 Ms Bohatá’s task is no mean when the State Statistical feat. The state sector cannot Service Act was amended. with the State Statistical Service Act, which laid firm legal easily downsize or fire staff to Now, they can improve the foundations for Czech statistics to take off. simply replace them, so this business register by access- has been a management ing some administrative Thanks to the positive turn of events of the last decade, it problem demanding signifi- data from tax and social has been able to salvage and revive its methodological role cant diplomacy and orchestra- security registers – but not from the shredding machine of history. This year, they set tion of the various interests yet tax declarations. “Even involved. What’s more, work- this is a big improvement”, up the Statistical Development Centre and have ear- ing for state statistics remains says Ms Bohatá. In addition marked resources for research activity, with around ten unattractive for many gradu- to business registers and people working full-time. On this subject, Ms Bohatá was ates who can find better finan- lowering the response bur- cial rewards elsewhere. Even den, Intrastat is no less a pleased to say that they had adopted mobile technology, when they can get hold of priority, for which access to ‘handhelds’, for fieldwork such as for price statistics, still young people, they soon tax registers will be indis- pioneering work. leave for private companies. pensable. S IGMA 1/2002 Profiles – looking eastwards 39

until this is done – only spar- sharing work equitably. “Not ing social statistics. everybody should have to do the same work” she says, In her view, simplifying “specialist tasks should be del- national accounts is one sure egated to certain countries way forward: “I am not an according to their skills and enemy to national accounts, specific features.” Ms Bohatá starts, “being an economist, I understand their Lastly, coming back to Czech role. But I wonder if we statistics, she explains her couldn’t streamline particu- intention of running a satisfac- larly quarterly national tion survey of CZSO staff – for accounts according to real the first time in the Office’s his- needs, and all the more so tory. Her reason: “Trying to given the cost side of their introduce changes is my obli- compilation. In my view, we gation and I would like to use need to foster more of a a satisfaction survey to help ‘Europe-first’ approach, while me just do that. Changes are taking into account an increas- almost always painful”. ingly globalised world. With- Changes certainly can be. But out simplification, timeliness our Czech colleagues have won’t be improved.” demonstrated that the highest mountains can be climbed. Looking deeper into the crystal ball, Ms Bohatá would also To find out more about like to see closer cooperation the Czech Republic’s between ESS agencies and State Statistical Service, possibly specialisation bet- visit their website at: ween groups of countries for http://czso.vse.cz/

Quality Bohatá sees as key, given her professional experience matters in business ethics. Up until now, the CZSO has had its plate full getting its sta- tistical system to stand on its A few years own two feet and adopting down the line the EU’s statistical acquis. Only recently, Ms Bohatá Asking Ms Bohatá how she affirms, have they been able would like to see the to focus on processes such as European Statistical System integrating Total Quality develop in the future, she too Management, in line with points her finger – albeit with Eurostat’s Charter of Quality, some reservations – to the into their work. US’ example as a source of inspiration. “The American Recently, they adopted an model seems to be more flex- ethical code on staff behav- ible, more operational, trans- iour and propriety, which parent and cost-efficient than also informs the public on the European one and could how to use the system and is serve as a blueprint for the also used for staff appraisal. future ESS, especially for cer- Here, too, quality manage- tain short-term indicators and ment – with all the trimmings national accounts.” She of performance targets and believes we should reassess appraisals and reports – is EU regulations with the new terrain, but it is an issue American model in mind for which a broad consensus and, therefore, stop harmon- has emerged and that Ms ising statistics any further Focus on NSIs S IGMA 1/2002 40

On the eve of the new millennium, the UN and the EU agreed that the time was ripe for a population census. Sigma wanted to find out more and asked two European countries – Norway and Hungary – about their experiences with the millennium census round.

We start with GUSTAV HARALDSEN and COEN HENDRIKS of Statistics Norway, who report how new technologies have revolu- tionised the most traditional area of statistics, cutting response burden and improving data quality. Census goes online Gustav Haraldsen – senior November 3, 2001 adviser at the Division for was Census day in Statistical Methods and Norway, for which Standards of Statistics household and Norway – works mainly dwelling data were with development and collected using a self- design of questionnaires. administered ques- Coen Hendriks – advisor at tionnaire for every the Division for Population family in the country. But with a difference: and Housing Census – was, the respondent could among others, responsable choose to fill out the for the data collection of paper form and the Norwegian Census. return it by post or ecause Statistics Norway question, with quality controls Electronically, access one of the B provides a ‘low-thresh- being run in the background old’ Internet service, even for some of the questions. better results electronic versions on people with an older brows- Questions came up one at a the Internet. A little er version should be able to time in the centre of the win- We expected the best data log onto our Internet pages. dow, with text boxes contain- quality from the advanced more than 10% used For the 2001 Census, we ing error messages or help Web version. We also felt that their personal com- constructed one simple texts in the right-hand margin presenting a picture of the HTML version and an (see figure below). original paper questionnaire puter to complete the advanced version using on a small screen might be questionnaire, with HTML and JavaScript. While Respondents could navigate to burdensome, and hence the simple version was sim- different parts of the question- diminish the quality of the result that the ply an electronic copy of the naire using the buttons in the answers. One of the main data quality of these paper one, the advanced left-hand side of the screen. goals of offering Web alterna- version, however, was Using either Explorer 5.0 or tives to the paper form is that seems to outshine designed differently. 5.5, they were automatically it could enhance data quality. that found in the guided to the advanced ver- Therefore, a first question is The respondents were auto- sion, while others were direct- whether this objective is paper version. matically guided through each ed to the simple version. achieved. Equally important, S IGMA 1/2002 Focus on NSIs 41

however, is to investigate the different versions had differ- what the computerised version ent effects. should look like and how it should function to achieve the It also seems that the extra effort best possible result. We will of implementing advanced fea- report a few preliminary find- tures in one of the computerised ings, which shed some light versions were well spent. In on these questions. straightforward questions there is not much difference between According to a recent survey, the two electronic versions. But a little more than half of the as soon as the questions became Norwegian population can more complicated, the item non- connect to the Internet from response rate increased in the home. Since one in ten forms simple version compared to the were returned via the Internet, advanced version. this means that approximately 20% of those with Internet In addition, an interesting find- access answered electronical- ing is that our fear about the sim- The screen layout of the advanced computerised census questionnaire ly. For every simple electronic ple Web version of the question- form, there were four naire producing the lowest qual- advanced versions returned – follow-up question in the the advanced version but dou- ity was, however, not supported a clear sign that the majority advanced version, but bled to 12% in the simple by the item non-response figures. of the respondents benefited increased to 5% in the simple Web version and increased to from the features of the version. In the paper version it 34% in the paper version. A All in all, the general picture advanced version. increased to 14%. similar pattern came up for the seems to be that it is easier to other items. skip questions on paper than on In a different question block the computer screen. What other Flash reminders we asked about access to a Squeezing out quality indicators will show we private or common garden do not yet know but we are very A perennial problem in statistical and to a garage or ‘carport’ non-response optimistic about the future of the surveys is non-response, and it is or to a private parking space. Internet for censuses. one that we had to grapple with The questions were phrased The lower item non-response in in the census. There were sever- as a single question (“Do you the Web questionnaires, in gen- This analysis will be followed up al questions with a particular have access to…”), with one eral, and in the advanced Web in the paper ‘Mode Effects in a high risk of item non-response. line for each item. The respon- version, in particular, may either Mail plus Internet designed Unsurprisingly, the question dent was expected to tick be a result of a selection process Census’ to be presented at the regarding the period in which either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for each or of the different instruments. International Conference on the respondent’s dwelling was item. The item non-response Even based on this preliminary Improving Surveys in Copen- built was one such example. for ‘private garden’ was 6% in analysis, however, it seems that hagen – next August. Item non-response was 3% both in the simple and advanced The item non-response on four questions selected computerised versions, but from the paper questionnaire and the advanced and increased to 9% in the paper Item non-response % simple web versions of the 2001 Census version.

What explains the difference? The question above was fol- lowed by another about the specific year of construction. In the advanced version the respondent was reminded of the period they had already indicated for the first question. Respondents who tried to skip the follow-up questions were also reminded that the ques- tion was not yet answered. The item non-response remained steady at 3% for the Focus on NSIs S IGMA 1/2002 42

GÁBOR RÓZSA, Deputy Head of the Population Census Department ◗ on housing units, residential at Hungary’s Central Statistical Office (HCSO), talks about the 2001 buildings and holiday houses, and institutions for collective population census in Hungary … accommodation: type, owner- ship, number of rooms, floor space, communal facilities, Taking a picture of level of comfort, kind of heat- ing, year of construction, walls, characteristics of the liv- Hungary’s society ing environment. The information collected thus allows to analyse the substantial In Hungary – as in developments of Hungarian soci- other European and ety over the last decade such as UN countries – much changes in family life and cohabitation, modifications in importance is the ownership structure and use attached to success- of the housing stock, develop- fully implementing ments of the educational system, the full-scale decenni- trends in the working environ- ment, etc. At the same time, it al population and was a must to be able to com- housing censuses. pare the results with the past, as Long and thorough well as with the data of the inter- preparatory work national community, given that a millennium census round was comprising legisla- underway all over the world. tion, field activities, and data processing Introducing were necessary to new tools carry out this huge With a view to legal limitations operation that in the use of administrative data requires enormous sources, the 2001 census was personal, technical carried out as a traditional sur- vey based on direct interviews and material with questionnaires and enu- resources. merators.

reparations by the Central The act adopted in December lation as well as 4.3 million However, we introduced several PStatistical Office for Hun- 1999 defined the census day, dwellings, other housing units new features and techniques: in gary’s 14th population census the duration and scope of the and institutional households. The the geographic preparation – carried out in February census, the characteristics of the topics covered were: phase, on the census forms in 2001 – were started some individuals to be enumerated, as terms of structure and content, in four years beforehand. well as the main topics of the cen- ◗ on natural persons: sex, date public relations activities and in sus. It provided for a response of birth, place of residence, the data processing and dissem- To ensure international com- obligation but exempted a num- marital status, family status, ination technology. parability, UN and EU recom- ber of specific topics (nationality, number of live-born children, mendations for the 2000 cen- mother tongue, religion, and school attendance, education- An updated census list of sus round were closely fol- infirmity) from this obligation. The al attainment, source of liveli- addresses was established by lowed. cooperation of the different cen- hood, households, occupa- matching and digitised maps tral and local authorities involved tion, employer and place of were used for localities with over The legal basis was also ruled by law. work, commuting, state of 2000 inhabitants, that will be health, citizenship, religion, matched with the relevant aggre- Hungarian legislation requires The topics nationality, mother tongue, gated census data. a specific act to govern the knowledge of languages, implementation of a popula- The census enumerated the total occupancy status in the Besides the traditional and com- tion census. of Hungary’s 10.2 million popu- dwelling, and infirmities. pulsory sets of demographic, S IGMA 1/2002 Focus on NSIs 43

ensure that several million mul- Financially speaking, the costs of tisided questionnaires could the central and territorial be scanned. preparatory works, the collec- tion, processing and dissemina- The actors tion of the data have amounted to around 40 million euro, ie. In conformity with the relevant slightly less than 4 euro per per- law, the Hungarian Central son enumerated. Statistical Office has been professionally responsible for For the moment being, there is no the census as a whole, includ- equivalent alternative to a full- ing data processing and pub- scope census in Hungary. lication, while the execution of Moreover, no evaluation exists to the field work including establish the consequences and recruiting and contracting costs implied by a lack of census interviewers was the task of data! So, a census is well worth local municipalities. The coun- some investment. ty directorates of the HCSO trained the interviewers, con- A wealth tracted the supervisors directly educational, occupational, fami- without names and exact and carried out the local pro- of information ly, household and housing top- addresses on the questionnaires fessional control. Not only do the processed data ics, the question of legal nation- in order to take into account represent valuable information, ality (citizenship) and religion legal requirements on ethnic No ‘bargain the results of the census will also were reinstated in the question- minorities and on personal data basement’ serve as a source for further sta- naire, as well as a block on dis- protection. After inputting the tistical and socio-economic stud- abilities. These topics and those coded census data into the sys- option ies and will be used as a sample on ethnic nationality and mother tem, all questionnaires were Population censuses are very base for future, in-depth surveys tongue are regarded as sensitive destroyed. costly operations from both the and thus provide a unique possi- characteristics and require care- workload and financial points of bility for a balanced description ful legal consideration. For this For the first time, following the view. The 2001 Hungarian cen- of Hungarian society. reason, we guaranteed the coding of the questionnaires, sus involved about 50 000 anonymity of the questionnaire optical reading devices were well-trained interviewers and A first wave of national, and gave respondents the used for data entry, a system that some 10 000 supervisors and regional and locality level pre- option of not answering these the HCSO elaborated in coop- nearly 15 million four-sided liminary housing and popula- questions. eration with a private company. questionnaires, not to speak of tion data were published in The structure of the census the processing and publication mid-2001 in a volume and on Unlike in the past, the census questionnaire was adapted to of the data, which will take some CD-ROM. More detailed data was carried out in anonymity, ie. this new data entry system to time to work through. of the most important census characteristics were released at the end of 2001.

The geographically detailed dis- semination of full-scope data is expected to start in the second half of 2002. In addition to stan- dard publications, geographic and thematic details can be obtained on a cost-recovery basis and under the strict restric- tions of the data protection law.

To consult the main data of the 2001 Hungarian population and housing census, visit the home- page of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office: www.ksh.hu or on the specific census page: www.nepszamlalas2001.hu. Focus on NSIs S IGMA 1/2002 44

On the eve of the new millennium, the Nordic statistical institutes formed a working group with a mandate to evaluate how changes in society, tech- nology, the international environment and EU integration would effect statis- tics and how statistics could ‘deliver the goods’. HELI JESKANEN- SUNDSTRÖM – Director-General of Statistics Finland and head of the working group – describes the strategy taken by the group. Vikings launch a joint plan of attack

n summer 2000, the direc- developing new information efficiently. It also enhances the gence of new products and Itors-general of the Nordic and communication technolo- dynamics of the international services, quality changes in countries’ national statistical gy became paramount during financial system. Statistical infor- old products and services, institutes (Iceland, Norway, the group’s work. Information mation gives transparency and structural changes in the oper- Sweden, Denmark and needs, calling for the produc- accountability to the decisions of ation of companies, changes Finland) – got together to dis- tion of new statistical data, authorities and politicians. in the labour and financial cuss the future challenges of are not only emerging in eco- markets, the emergence of the official statistics. nomic statistics but also in intangible economy, etc. New social statistics. Major chal- … in a changing technology and globalisation Because revising and develop- lenges arising from interna- world are both adding to the inher- ing statistical systems are tional environmental agree- ent complexity of economic processes that can take sever- ments, among other things, In the last few years, the and social phenomena. al years, actions to safeguard were also foreseen in the area research and development work service capacity must be taken of environmental statistics. in the European Statistical in good time. This gave rise to System has been rather wide New management the thought that the future and The working group further and vital. culture needed the challenges it will present to analysed the general operat- official statistics should be ing conditions of NSIs and the At the same time, however, the The trends brought about by analysed more systematically. expected changes in them number of new phenomena all the changes in society and with respect to the available that statistics are supposed to in statistical offices call for sev- With this in mind, a working resources – human, technolog- describe has increased to such eral responses. group was set up to prepare a ical, physical and structural – an extent that the whole sys- paper for a joint Nordic strategy as well as the challenges con- tem of economic and social First of all, the systems of sta- on the future challenges. A rep- nected with legislation, supply statistics may well have lost tistical description will need to resentative from each NSI was of basic data, customers’ and some relevance with respect to be improved with respect to appointed to the working group, users’ expectations and effi- the information needs of poli- their contents in order to give with Finland’s representative ciency of service systems. tics, business and researchers. a relevant description of a elected to chair it. The group’s changing society and to meet final report was approved in First of all, the Nordic group High-tech innovations, in particu- the new user needs. November 2001 and is a joint underlined the increased role lar, are transforming the nature contribution of the five NSIs to of high-quality and independ- of the economy and the society. Further, the users are chang- the debate about the future ent information in the modern Both globalisation and techno- ing their demand for how sta- strategic priorities in statistical knowledge-based society. logical development gathered tistics should be served. The organisations. further momentum in the latter change in user needs will also Wide-ranging statistical infor- half of the 1990s. have an effect on the needs New information mation is necessary for the for primary data and, accord- proper functioning of modern What’s more, there is a num- ingly, on the work with data needs … democracy. ber of other relevant factors, capture. In addition, the work- which are often closely inter- ing methods, management The challenges to the content Furthermore, a high-quality sta- woven with technology and and organisation in the pro- of statistics brought about by tistical infrastructure enhances globalisation. These kinds of duction of statistics will need globalisation and rapidly the ability of markets to operate derivatives include the emer- to be developed. S IGMA 1/2002 Focus on NSIs 45

Statistics production is a high International technology field in which invest- collaboration ment in research and develop- ment plays a prominent role. The essential growing investments in research and development could be bet- The main obstacles to the devel- ter integrated into the develop- opment of statistics are increas- ment of products and production ingly originating from the short- processes. comings in international statisti- cal classifications and standards Furthermore, due to the paucity and from the problems of defin- of resources, prioritisation of ing new phenomena. development projects and a cer- tain degree of returning ‘back to Due to various new trends in basics’ may be necessary in the the business environment, sta- field of statistics. tistical definitions, standards and classifications are becom- What we need is a new man- ing outdated. It is important to agement and leadership culture: focus on the serviceability of a better management and strate- the classifications to ensure gic planning system, better man- that they are better balanced, agement of processes, better not necessarily by increasing customer intimacy and better the number of classes, but by management of people. making them more evenly spread. Focusing on the future, and the enablers, instead of The Nordic report concludes measuring only conse- that, for developing new sta- quences of past actions is tistics, it is crucial that users, essential. In the medium researchers and data provid- term, the goal should be the ers cooperate smoothly. development of NSIs into top quality organisations that are In addition to statistical institu- led according to modern tions from different countries management doctrines. working closely together, inter- national statistical organisa- Help from tions should coordinate and direct the work on standards new data sources and frameworks. and techniques Sharing experience and As regards data capture, new good practices among statis- possibilities will be created tical institutions is important by the so-called electronic in order to avoid unneces- traces and commercial data- or EAN) and the statistical market. Furthermore, the sary costs, to avoid “invent- bases that are being built up. standards. structure of the users will ing the wheel again” in each These are enormously rich change and customers’ data country separately. This data sources that, theoretical- Another strategic question that needs will grow increasingly report is one example of this ly, could be organised in such needs addressing is whether diversified. The demand on thinking and, at the same a way that NSIs could use data should be captured the information market is for time, one example of the them. If such data were to be directly from the observation superficial information con- long tradition of cooperation made available for official units or indirectly from others. sumed by the masses on the that Nordic statistical insti- statistics, response burden The Nordic tradition – with its one hand, and for in-depth tutes enjoy. could be cut. heavy use of public adminis- and detailed information trative data – is an example of needed by the profession- The final report is now avail- Moreover, it will be crucial indirect data collection. als, on the other. This able on Statistics Finland’s that NSIs build bridges dichotomy presents chal- website at: between the applicable com- A great deal of new users is lenges to the production of http://www.stat.fi/tk/sh/nordic mercial standards (Bar Codes expected on the information official statistics. _strat_en.pdf Focus on NSIs S IGMA 1/2002 46

With a new Commodity Flow Survey, Statistics Sweden is laying down new Traditional transport statistics, in tracks in transport statistics. It is hoped that this new survey will provide a contrast, emanate from each transport mode: road, rail, air, good point of departure for developing sound intermodal transport statistics. and sea transport, and are col- KERSTIN FORSSÉN, senior statistician at Statistics Sweden, on the new lected at transport companies. Of course, these statistics are survey and what it brings … also important for a variety of purposes, but this individual approach has many downsides when an overall picture of com- "All change please" modity flows is needed: goods transported (in tonnes) are counted more than once when different modes are used and for intermodal added up. Providing better transport statistics results The new CFS survey uses local n efficient transport system units of enterprises as survey units Ais vital for economic devel- within manufacturing, wholesale opment and competitiveness, trade and mining and quarry- and for trade and manufacturing ing, and thus all modes will be industries to widen their markets reported. The population con- and fulfil demand in all parts of sists of roughly 38 000 local a country. units and the sample of 12 000 for the whole year (a three-stage Government authorities and stratified sample). Other parts of companies alike must be aware the economy are in the pipeline of the needs and changes of and will be surveyed (succes- transportation, since they are sively) later on, eg. agricultural- responsible for and interested in related sectors such as forestry, the efficiency of the transport sys- delivery of dairy products, tem. Large sums of money are slaughtering, and transport of involved for transport infrastruc- grains and cereals. The main ture, for investment in and main- survey is a mandatory postal tenance of roads, railways, ports survey. and airports. So, earmarking some cash for statistics to take a more solid statistical founda- all transport modes and will The big plus point of using the clearer snapshot of the economic tions. Such a survey would also hopefully give answers to users’ delivering and receiving enter- needs for moving goods within provide a better data source for demands. prises themselves, rather than and outside the country would modelling and forecasting transporting enterprises, is that therefore be a wise investment. important for investment deci- The CFS has adopted an there is no double or triple count- sions. And last but not least, with entirely new approach con- ing of the goods transported. Against this background, Statistics some further additions, it might cerning transport statistics in Goods dispatched within and Sweden was requested to be able to provide intermodal that the respondents are the outside Sweden, as well as analyse this question more transport statistics – a priority enterprises or local units that goods received from abroad, deeply and to set up a survey area at EU level. receive and dispatch the are covered. The most important that would look at the transport goods themselves, rather than variables are weight and value of chains of goods transported. At Laying new tracks the transport companies. In this the goods, the successive modes the moment, nodes – points of way, the survey is able to fol- used during the transport, cargo interchange – are not yet Following study visits to the US low the complete commodity types, type of goods (related to looked into, but will be part of Census Bureau – which under- flow, eg. from the mining and goods nomenclature NST/R1), future work. With these data at took a similar survey – and two manufacturing industries via from where and to which desti- hand, the transport industry pilot surveys, Statistics Sweden wholesale trade up to the final nation (a so-called OD-matrix, ori- would be able to foster more effi- launched the Commodity Flow receiver of the goods – inde- gin-destination approach) and cient transport solutions, with Survey (CFS). This sample sur- pendently of the various trans- where (in locality) the transport infrastructure planning based on vey carried out in 2001 covers port modes. crosses the border. S IGMA 1/2002 Focus on NSIs 47

For the survey, non-response Good data sources for evaluat- Early figures show that national Sweden in October 2002. This averaged around 20%, and fig- ing the estimated figures also transport of goods is mainly by is just one stop on the develop- ures were considerably smaller exist: production of commodities road, while international trans- ment line towards intermodal for larger and most important and industrial services statistics, port has a considerable degree transport statistics for better local units. Quite a substantial enterprise statistics and foreign of sea and air transport, which transport policies and better number of the larger local units trade statistics. Rough compar- comes as no surprise consider- networks for all. The terminus sent their information as Excel isons show that the estimated lev- ing Sweden’s geographical is some way off yet but we’re data sets – a further advantage els of the survey are good. Item position. getting there. compared to the traditional trans- non-response exists, but is not port surveys, where the drivers that high: non-response is around The results of the Commodity 1) NST/R: Standard Goods Classific- are respondents and have few 5% for weight and about 10% Flow Survey will be reported as ation for Transport Statistics, revised possibilities to send data files. for value. part of the official statistics of version.

Attracting a wider audience to their websites and providing access to statistics in a more targeted man- ner is an issue for many European statistical offices. INSEE, the French statistical office, has had exact- ly these ideas in mind with its recent educational outreach initiatives. ANDRE DE LOS SANTOS, responsible for web policy and publications at INSEE, gives a run-down. It’s never too early to start learning statistics

hree years ago, INSEE and ing number of analyses and eco- test their knowledge and under- tional establishments and teach- Tthe French Ministry of nomic and statistical data via its standing about the topic covered. ers can consult publicly available Education started a partnership, Internet site, with the aim of mak- information, which can be print- the first fruit of which was a CD- ing key data on the French econ- For the moment, this new feature ed, downloaded, adapted and ROM aimed at the general pub- omy available to as wide an covers only two topics: invest- used for non-commercial, educa- lic, bringing together key data audience as possible, particular- ment and foreign trade. Data on tional purposes. on the French economy and soci- ly people involved in one way or prices, employment and enter- ety: Tableaux de l'Economie fran- another in education. prises are in the pipeline and This project is a very tangible çaise. And it wasn’t just INSEE expected soon. Concerning example of cooperation between doing all the work: the Ministry Greater access investment, which features in the INSEE and the Ministry of of Education took an active part and more fun INSEE website under various Education, which benefits the in its design to meet the needs of headings, such as ‘annual national education system and the education sector. However, because the site was accounts’, ‘cyclical indicators’ contributes to raising the interest not designed for educational pur- and ‘cyclical analysis’, Educnet of students and improving their Given these promising founda- poses, its potential was signifi- provides a single access point. knowledge about statistics. tions, they have taken their col- cantly stifled. This is why we laboration one step further by teamed together with the Ministry A few simple questions are suffi- But that's not all. INSEE has fur- launching a site called of Education to reorganise INSEE cient to access the available ther-reaching plans. Educnet/ "Educnet/Insee" – accessible studies, data and metadata, for information: “How much?” to Insee is just the first accomplish- via INSEE's website and the use by teachers and pupils, and read the latest figures on invest- ment of a more general Internet Ministry's educational site supplement them with education- ment, “Who?” to find out who is strategy. In order to satisfy the (www.educnet.education.fr al user guides, using the expert- investing, and “What effects?” to needs of the diverse user cate- /insee) – to make it easier for ise of educationalists for a peda- discover the impact of investment gories, different portals will be schoolchildren and students to gogical approach. on growth, etc. created to facilitate their access to access economic and social statistics. Teachers and pupils information. Tailored to the type of questions The site not only provides data, form part of INSEE's target audi- teachers ask their pupils, and but also contains analyses pub- ence but plans also exist for a For several years, INSEE has vice versa, the site also features a lished by INSEE, definitions and portal for enterprises and local provided free access to a grow- quiz for teachers and pupils to methodological details. Educa- organisations. Focus on NSIs S IGMA 1/2002 48

Switzerland cooperates with the New hand at the wheel EU and with individual EU Member States. How do you see that cooperation moving for- of Swiss Statistics ward? Statistical cooperation with the he Swiss Government recently EU already encompasses a num- Tappointed Dr Adelheid Bürgi- ber of different areas, and we Schmelz as the new president of value our close contacts with the the Swiss Federal Statistical EU very highly. But that is not Office, or ‘Swiss Statistics’. She enough. replaces Dr Carlo Malaguerra, who retired at the end of 2001 Ongoing globalisation is mak- (see panel). Dr Bürgi-Schmelz – ing it increasingly urgent for the first woman to become Switzerland to possess statistical President of the SFSO since its cre- instruments with which it can ation in 1860 – took up her new gauge its own position. This is post in Neuchâtel in April 2002. why Switzerland entered into bilateral negotiations with the Adelheid Bürgi-Schmelz gained EU, with a view to reaching her professional experience in agreement on statistical cooper- managerial positions in industry ation which will ensure "Euro- and educational administration. compatible" production and dis- In industry, her activities were semination of statistical informa- focused on telecommunications, tion about Switzerland. Trying to engineering, informatics and arti- compare non-harmonised statis- ficial intelligence at companies tics is like trying to ring home such as Telcordia (Livingston, New president, Dr Adelheid Bürgi-Schmelz from America using a European USA), the lift manufacturer mobile phone! Schindler Aufzüge and the tele- educational science. She then Frequently interviewed by the coms company Ascom (both undertook further studies: opera- media, here are some extracts of Knowledge is power. How much Swiss companies). Her most tions research and statistics in the her interviews: power do you have as Switzer- recent position at Ascom was as United States, in which she land's ‘Chief Statistician’? Vice-President, where she led a obtained her MSc at Rensselaer What tasks lie ahead of you at major project in the company's Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY; Swiss Statistics? Power to do what? Politics, cooperation division (mergers & and business administration industry and society at large acquisitions). focusing, in particular, on infor- Consolidation, integration, com- need reliable information that mation systems in Berne, where munication! they can use to determine where In the first half of the 1990s, she was awarded a doctorate they need to act to take the right Adelheid Bürgi-Schmelz headed (PhD) for her thesis on ‘Factors When I say "consolidation", I decisions. The question of what the Coordination Centre for determining success in the devel- mean that Swiss Statistics has data are collected, and how, is International Relations at the opment and introduction of grown considerably, and we not decided arbitrarily by some University of Berne, from where knowledge-based systems’. now have to digest what we authority or other, but within a she led and promoted internation- have swallowed, as it were. I say legal framework. In other words, al cooperation in European edu- Adelheid Bürgi-Schmelz is mar- "integration" because, for exam- the power of origination rests cational and research pro- ried and has two children, aged ple, the second round of bilateral with the Swiss people, who grammes. 14 and 16. She was born in negotiations with the EU is due to wield sovereign power in this Bottrop (Germany) in 1957 and begin soon. Those negotiations country. Broad interests has lived in Switzerland for near- will cover statistics, among other ly 20 years. areas. Integration also includes And yet, we do have some Dr Bürgi-Schmelz's wide-ranging the harmonisation of population power of implementation. The career was made possible by her In demand registers and closer cross-refer- "what" of statistics is a legal equally impressive educational from the media encing of statistical data. Lastly, given. As to "how", the deciding achievements. She studied for her communication, by which I principle is impartiality: Swiss first degree at Bonn and Zurich Dr Bürgi-Schmelz's new job has mean both internal and external Statistics must retain its neutrality Universities from 1976 to 1981, been marked by intensive con- communication. Those are the and cultivate its credibility. taking the Staatsexamen in Latin, tacts both within Swiss Statistics key markers which I intend to (Quotes from ‘Der Bund‘ news- mathematics, philosophy and and with the outside world. put down. paper et al) S IGMA 1/2002 Focus on Eurostat 49

Catching up with Uncle Sam

Since European Monetary Union (EMU) was launched Dr Carlo in 1999, EU/EMU Malaguerra short-term economic was President of the Swiss statistics have Federal Statistical Office from stepped much more 1987 to 2001. In the course onto centre-stage, of these years, Swiss Statistics underwent a modernisation in particular for process at different levels: at conducting monetary the scientific level, with the policy. However, introduction of sample survey methods and high tech tools; lacking in timeliness at the institutional level, with and coverage, these the implementation of a new statistics don’t federal statistical law; at the corporate level, with the qual- attract much itative and quantitative applause from the growth of resources and with audience – read reuniting the staff of different services within a single com- users. Sigma’s mon house; and finally, at the GLEN CAMPBELL political level, with the grow- reports on what ing social acknowledgement of the professionalism and is being done to impartiality of Swiss official remedy the situation. statistics. n the last issue of Sigma Indeed, in parallel to the Action Chaired by Sweden and co- Since his appointment at the I(03/2001), we devoted an Plan, statisticians from the chaired by Eurostat, eight coun- helm of the SFSO, Dr article to the improvement of European Statistical System tries (Denmark, Finland, France, Malaguerra has been strongly infra-annual statistics in the frame- came together to do exactly Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, committed to international col- work of the Action Plan on EMU that … Sweden and the UK) teamed up laboration: within the Statistical Requirements, and pre- with Eurostat, the European Conference of European sented one element of Eurostat’s A task force goes Central Bank and the OECD on Statisticians (UN-ECE), in the response: the euro-indicators site transatlantic the task force. framework of the UN Statistical (http://www.europa.eu.int/ Commission, the Euro- comm/euroindicators/). Armed with a steady supply of Mediterranean statistical coop- Aware of the US’ lead in the notepads and biros, the task eration and the European and Sigma also communicated sug- area of timely infra-annual statis- force went to see for them- World Population Conferences. gestions that the Action Plan – tics and of good practices closer selves how the Americans He has also been active in the even if its impact is substantial – to home in Europe, a ‘Task Force were doing it, with a study tour International Statistical Institute would not be enough to catch up on Benchmarking in Infra-annual at various US agencies. In (ISI), the International with the US’ timeliness and that Statistics’ was set up in addition, a questionnaire was Association for Official Statistics we could learn a thing or two September 2000 to conduct an sent to all EU countries con- (IAOS) and the TES Institute's from our transatlantic counter- intra-EU and EU-US benchmark cerning twelve indicators from board of trustees. parts – as well as from ourselves! study on such statistics. the EMU Action Plan. Focus on Eurostat S IGMA 1/2002 50

The American ous EU Member States. This is The Americans’ focus on rapidity start from the bottom upwards dream comes true? also because of our greater con- inevitably leads to some inaccu- with national samples. All these cern about missing data and racy for first estimates. But this is aspects certainly provide the US There may well be something true lower accuracy in first estimates. no big deal in their view. The sta- with a more favourable infra- in the idea of the American tistics are improved as more reli- structure. dream. At least for short-term eco- ‘Monthly’ rules, ok able data come in by increasing nomic statistics, that is. For statisti- coverage, checking basic data, Looking in our own cians on this side of the Atlantic, a Then, there is the US’ focus on replacing proxies by observed backyard comparative audit of the respec- monthly statistics – a prerequisite data and, finally, using bench- tive systems does seem to confirm for timely quarterly statistics. marking techniques – especially Ok, all that sounds convincing that there are lessons to be drawn Because data sources are main- benchmarking short-term results enough, but what about the – even if there are some good ly monthly, they make it possible against annual surveys. good work going on within EU practices within our own continent to successively build up aggre- Member States? Indeed, we that cannot be overlooked. gates and to analyse data The US also works according to could certainly learn a great deal sources and economic develop- a sophisticated release calendar from our own ‘best practices’. Let’s start with a couple of eye- ments more frequently. Our situ- based on successive estimates. Here is just a small handful. opening examples. For monthly ation is very patchy with gaps in But if you think that nobody is retail trade data, the US releases some areas because of different interested in first estimates, think By attaching high priority to the a first estimate about 12-13 days periodicities or lack of certain again: they often attract more European Central Bank’s data after the end of the reference indicators in some Member attention than later, more reliable needs, Germany managed to cut month, while we take anything States. For example, while our ones. its timeliness for quarterly nation- between 18 and 75 days, with production and trade in goods al accounts from 70 to 55 days. Eurostat publishing aggregated statistics are commendable, it is Another observation is that statis- data for the EMU after 60 days. quite another story for services, ticians are not the only ones The Finnish Labour Force Survey Then there is quarterly GDP that is labour costs and public finances. involved. A greater number of uses Computer Assisted Tele- published after 25-30 days in the professional economists make up phone Interviews (CATI) with a US, outpacing Eurostat’s 70 days. Earlier reference periods also the team, stretching grey matter questionnaire programmed to Other examples are in no short have a significant role to play. to cover particularly economic code and edit data automatically supply. Their monthly indicators are analysis and a better under- to enable earlier publication of often based on a specific day or standing of user needs. To this labour statistics. Again, for its How do they do it? week in the middle of the month, can also be added a deeper net- industrial production index, the instead of an average for the work bringing together all the Finns use telephone contacts with Their key motto seems to be very month – making it possible to movers and shakers – private late respondents to reduce pro- much “the less fuss, the faster”. kick off the process a couple of and public. duction time from 45 to 30 days. Because the US favours rapidity weeks earlier. As for us, the use over coherence and sub-national of a short reference period in the One nation, The UK uses central data valida- details, their statistics – with a few middle of the month is not com- one system tion, parallel processing and exceptions – are far more up to mon practice, the aim being to scanning to accelerate industrial date than comparable EU/EMU cover the whole month. Finally, behind the scenes of all production statistics. And so on. data. Only for the consumer price these elements are the different And individually, creatively and index, and balance of payments Estimation over political and institutional struc- inspiringly on. can we outshine our American accuracy tures in which US statistics pros- friends. per. Although it is thematically All in all, comparison within the The US is also keener on estima- decentralised with a division of EU seems to confirm that those Let’s look a little closer. In the US, tion. They use a wide variety of labour between many agencies, who have set themselves targets essential short-term statistics must techniques for estimating month- it is geographically centralised for improving timeliness are be released within 22 working ly and quarterly statistics without and coordinated at federal level. indeed faster at publishing statis- days after the end of the period – a full set of data – showing a tics. Similarly, using monthly a priority formalised in the official great deal of pragmatism in the For producing statistics, this inquiries and estimation of miss- guidelines and which has a major process. For quarterly national means no need for, and time ing data tend to improve timeli- impact on timeliness. accounts, for example, timely spent in, regional breakdowns, ness of quarterly releases. first estimates are produced with harmonisation and aggregation. While our timeliness has undoubt- data often available only for two Just national figures – and not A strategy for edly improved– also thanks to the months. First estimates are often twelve or fifteen for the euro-zone progress EMU Action Plan with its 70 day based on small sub-samples. and the EU respectively – with a commitment for national accounts While we in Europe certainly homogenous system and one Guided by the findings of their – we are still slower and this is use estimation models, using speed. Samples can also be kept visit to US agencies and the intra- compounded by the striking diver- such techniques for timeliness is small, thus limiting cost and EU questionnaire, the task force gences in the speeds of the vari- not the fashion. response burden. In Europe we proposed an ambitious strategy S IGMA 1/2002 Focus on Eurostat 51

for progress in September 2001 of key short-term economic statis- towards these aims will be mon- include in-depth studies of to the Statistical Programme tics. Within the next five years, itored annually by the SPC. good practice, more monthly Committee (SPC). In a nutshell, it they aim to meet European statistics, creation of a com- helps to join the dots by advo- users’ requirements, achieving Two studies have been started mon dissemination platform, cating a specific European standards comparable to the to explore the possibilities of benchmarking of infra-annual approach that accommodates best in Europe, the USA, and the methodological changes and to annual statistics, earlier ref- national specificities. While data rest of the world. The specific tar- to render national surveys erence periods, use of data collection will have to remain in gets for improving each key more readily usable for estimation techniques, more national hands, we will have to short-term statistic have been dis- European aggregates. These estimation of EU aggregates explore new ways for compiling cussed and are expected to be are a feasibility study on coun- and jointly conducted EU and disseminating short-term sta- adopted in September. try-stratified sampling for retail analysis. tistics. In short, we cannot buy trade and a methodological the US’ centralised production In achieving these improve- study on sampling for EU- Together with the EMU Action brand without some adaptation. ments, account will be taken of focussed surveys. Plan, the strategy for progress is the impact on other aspects of another supporting pillar in the Will it bite? quality, production costs, and Finally, a number of actions and European Statistical System’s respondents’ compliance costs. studies will be undertaken in strategy to match the timeliness After its adoption by the SPC, Eurostat is to prepare an imple- data collection and transmission, of America’s short-term statistics, the strategy for progress is set to mentation programme based on indicator compilation, aggrega- making it less of a dream and make a difference. The SPC has these aims, and assess the likely tion and dissemination in order more of a reality. Wake up, pledged to speed up the release costs. In addition, progress to improve timeliness. These make dreams come true.

The 1998-2002 Community Statistical Programme, which saw the sunset of one millennium and the sunrise of another, ends this year. Eurostat is there- fore in the midst of preparing for the new 2003-2007 programme. Eurostat’s JAMES WHITWORTH – the middle-man between Eurostat and the European Parliament – gives a brief outline of the progress and explains the ‘co-decision’ procedure, which applies for the first time. New legal clout for Community Statistical Programme

tatistical programmes are period not exceeding five the co-decision procedure, laid consulted with Member States’ Snothing new. The five-year years” (Council Regulation down by Article 285 of the National Statistical Institutes programmes have been (EC) No. 322/97 on Amsterdam Treaty, which stipu- (NSIs) on a number of occa- drawn up regularly since Community Statistics). The lates that all major statistical acts sions to learn about their 1975 and serve as a guide Regulation also provides for have to be adopted through co- needs and views and to for all those involved in the each multi-annual programme decision. Concretely, this means ensure that the Community European Statistical System in to be supported by annual that the Decision setting up the Programme was integrated setting out work plans and programmes which give more Programme is made jointly by into national statistical pro- strategies for the medium detailed work objectives for the European Parliament grammes. In addition, lessons term. Today, they are a basic each year. (Parliament) and the Council. were drawn from the mid-term part of EU statistical dialogue, And there are between one and evaluation of the 1998-2002 consultation and work. Co-decision three stages (‘readings’) for the Programme. A final draft pro- two institutions to come to an posal was presented and dis- Since 1997, there has been a for the future agreement on the Decision. cussed within the Statistical statutory requirement for a Programme Committee in Community Programme which The 2003-2007 Statistical The story so far September 2001, following “defines the approaches, the Programme will be the sixth of its consultation of the Committee main fields and the objectives kind and at the same time the From July 2000, consul- on Monetary, Financial and of the actions envisaged for a first to be decided upon using tations with NSIs: Eurostat Balance of Payment Statistics Focus on Eurostat S IGMA 1/2002 52

(CMFB) and the European which would then be voted Advisory Committee on James Whitworth is Adviser to Eurostat’s upon in both institutions. If the Statistical Information in the Director-General, Yves Franchet. Based in Brussels, text is approved by both insti- Economic and Social Spheres tutions, the proposal is adopt- his job is to oversee Eurostat’s relations with the (CEIES). ed. If either rejects it, the pro- European institutions in Brussels, notably the posal falls. 28 November 2001, Council and the European Parliament in the co- Commission Proposal: Co-decision is a lengthy and The Commission (Eurostat) decision procedure. sometimes complicated made a proposal for a process. In the first two and a Decision of the Parliament and drafting the opinion. The In terms of timing, the co- half years since the Treaty of the Council on the 2003- Economic and Monetary decision procedure does not Amsterdam came into force, 2007 Community Statistical Affairs Committee approved specify a time limit for the nine statistical acts were Programme (ref. COM(2001) the report with some amend- first reading, but it does for adopted by co-decision, of 683) which was transmitted ments on 26 March and trans- the second. The Parliament which one third were adopted simultaneously to the other two mitted it to the plenary session has three months following at first reading and two-thirds institutions involved. where it was approved on 25 its receipt of the Common at second. April. Position to either approve the 25 April 2002, First Council’s Common Position In general, those that were reading: The Parliament’s An opinion was also prepared (in which case the Decision approved at second reading Economic and Monetary by the Economic and Social will be immediately adopt- were adopted under the sim- Affairs Committee is responsi- Committee with Susanna ed), to propose further pler variant, where the ble for the proposal – above Florio as rapporteur. Although amendments, or to reject the Parliament approves the all, Astrid Lulling as rappor- this Committee has no formal proposal altogether. In the Council’s Common Position. teur. This function involves legislative role, it must be con- latter case, the proposal All three institutions wish to examining the Statistical sulted in areas of its responsi- would fall. avoid the conciliation phase Programme in detail and bility during the early stages and this is considered to be making recommendations to of debate. Should the Parliament make particularly inappropriate parliamentary colleagues. But amendments, they would be insofar as a technical domain Mrs Lulling is no newcomer in What can submitted to the Council for such as statistics is concerned. this matter – she was also rap- approval. If the Council porteur for the 1998-2002 happen next? approves them all by qualified The European Statistical programme (see Sigma, issue majority voting, the act is System can anticipate uncork- 1/1999). Second reading: Since the adopted. If there is still no ing the bubbly on 1 January Council in charge, the agreement, a third and final 2003. All in all, the process Two other parliamentary com- Economic and Financial reading would then be the ensures that the different insti- mittees were also asked for an Affairs Council, did not next step. tutions are actively involved in opinion on the proposal: the approve the Parliament’s decision-making. It will also Budgets Committee with report without amendment – it Third reading or ‘Conci- hopefully lead to a Statistical Göran Färm (as rapporteur) proposed its own amendments liation’: A committee made Programme which provides a and the Culture, Youth, – a so-called ‘Common up of members of the robust framework for medium- Education, Media and Sport Position’ was established. This Parliament and Council would term programming. Cheers, in Committee with Myrsini Zorba means that a second reading within six weeks try to agree anticipation. will be necessary. on a joint compromise text Statistics and Globalisation S IGMA 1/2002 In this issue of Sigma …

Distances are shrinking and barriers are vanishing. Be it goods, people, ideas, culture, news or even pollution – you name it – borders are becoming increasingly porous. Changes in supply and demand in one country can send ripples around the world. News of an event in a country thousands of kilometres away can reach us before their own people get wind of it. In short, we live in a globalised world. Yet we still perceive and interpret our world in national terms. High-level international meetings such as those in Seattle, Prague, Gothenburg and Genoa have prompted many people to take a closer look at the ties holding the world together and to rethink the merits of this force called globalisation. What better moment then to scrutinise the subject with Sigma readers … ➤ in the light of EU policy, ➤ from the perspective of a key global actor, and above all ➤ in terms of its impact on statistics.

Eurostat's Director-General Yves Franchet opens this issue before giving the floor to the European Commissioners Pascal Lamy (Trade) and Erkki Liikanen (Information society) whose remits are key elements in the globalisation process. Sigma – the bulletin of European statistics produced in MEP Dr Paul Rübig highlights that globalisation policies need to be democratically legit- Luxembourg by Eurostat imised, while Françoise Le Bail of DG Trade points to the role of statistics and the statisti- Chief editor cal needs of a major user. Amador Rodriguez Prieto Next, statistics specialists from Eurostat, Istat, ITPS (the Swedish Institute for Growth Policy Assistant chief editor Philippe Bautier Studies), and the OECD's Chief Statistician, Enrico Giovannini, discuss the various statisti- cal challenges raised by globalisation. Editorial team Barbara Jakob, Glen Campbell

Assistant Virginie Schultz

Layout Also in this issue … Claudia Daman With eight Eastern European countries Statistics Sweden presents a strategy for Cover plus Malta and Cyprus ready to join intermodal transport statistics. Frédéric Guyon the EU in the next wave of enlarge- ment, and more countries waiting in INSEE's André De Los Santos tells us Published by the wings, we felt it was high time to how they are making statistics more Office for Official Publications of the become familiar with the statistical sys- accessible for the public, before European Communities tems of our future EU partners. We Statistics Switzerland gives us the therefore kick off a new series of pro- low-down on some 'personnel news'. Catalogue number files, with Poland and the Czech KS-BU-02-001-EN-C Finally, we unveil how the EU is trying to Republic first out of the hat. © ECSC-EC-EAEC catch up with 'Uncle Sam' in short-term Brussels • Luxembourg 2002 Focusing on the millennium census statistics, and wrap up the issue with Printed in Luxembourg round, we then report on the experi- some information about the new ence of Norway and Hungary in Community Statistical Programme for Views expressed in Sigma are those this exercise. of the authors, not necessarily those of 2003-2007. the European Commission Heli Jeskanen-Sundström, Director-General of Statistics Finland, Sigma is available free of charge reflects on strategies for the statistics of Philippe Bautier from: Eurostat tomorrow, while Kerstin Forssén of Assistant chief editor Press & Communication Team Bech A4/20 L-2920 Luxembourg Fax: +352 4301 35349 e-mail: [email protected] We would like to thank all those who have contributed to this edition: Winfried Blaschke, Marie Bohatá, Edouard Bourcieu, Adelheid Bürgi-Schmelz, François de Geuser, Olivier De-Laroussilhe, André De Los Santos, Barbara Domaszewicz, Kerstin Forssén, Enrico Giovannini, Armin Grossenbacher, Gallo Gueye, Gustav Haraldsen, Coen Hendriks, Beata Jakubczak, Heli Jeskanen-Sundström, Bettina Knauth, Aarno Laihonen, Françoise Le Bail, Denis Leythienne, Patrick Low, Arto Luhtio, Irène Martin-Houlgatte, Jussi Melkas, Enrica Morganti, Paolo Passerini, Jean-Claude Roman, Gábor Rózsa, Paul Rübig, Heikki Salmi, Paul Inge Severeide, Anne-Christine Strandell, Stanislav Stygler, Tadeusz Toczynski, James Whitworth