In the framework of the MEDSTAT IV project, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Palestine asked to benefit from a targeted technical support to discuss their respective national strategies for the development of a statistical business register and the design of roadmaps for their implementation. This support was given by Mr Manlio Calzaroni, expert from ISTAT, Italy, during a meeting that took place in Amman on 3-4 May 2017.
In turn, each country presented its national strategy which was then discussed in details by the expert and by the other countries. During the discussions, constant references were made by the expert to the “Guidelines on Statistical Business Registers – SBR” from the UN- Economic Commission for Europe which were thoroughly debated. The discussion was thus an opportunity to propose some concrete applications of the recommendations from the UN-ECE on the proposed country strategies and road maps.
Mr Calzaroni developed a step by step approach for the development of an SBR with a precise content for each step. He then asked the participants to locate their respective countries in this general diagram in order to assess at which stage they were, what should be done next and how. He based each of its recommendations to the countries on examples he draw from the experience of ISTAT,
The question of matching the files from the several administrations involved in the creation and regular updating of the Business Register was identified as the major obstacle to the development of a sustainable process. The quality of the identification of the businesses is also a key element to consider. The countries had also a chance to ask specific questions on the step-to-step approach proposed by the expert and they should be now in a position to adjust their strategies and the road maps with the advices received.
The new platform that has been established in Morocco, involving the main national partners in the SBR (Ministry of Finances, Social Security Office and the Chamber of Commerce) and the statistical institute was also presented and discussed. The platform allows an updating in real time for all of the changes and deletions made by one of the partners.
The next step with SBR will be the organisation of a study visit to the INS of Tunisia or to ISTAT Italy in order to see the functioning of efficient process where it is.
For more information, please contact medstat4@expertisefrance.fr