EXPERT GROUP ON the Measurement of Non-Financial Assets ("CANBERRA II")

Purpose

1. To undertake work on research agenda established by the of the original expert group (" Canberra I) on capital stock statistics.
2. To research into issues associated with the measurement of non-financial assets as part of the process of updating SNA93.

Active years

2003 - 2007

Participants

Countries

Countries that have actively participated so far include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America. Any country that is interested in the Group's activities is invited to attend the meeting or participate in the Group's electronic discussions.

International agencies

International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD), Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Statistics Division, World Bank, Statistical Offices of the European Communities.

Expert advisers

Erwin Diewert, Peter Hill, Charles Hulton, Dale Jorgenson, John Pitzer, Jack Triplett.

Meetings

First Meeting: 15 - 17 April 2003 in Voorburg
Second Meeting: 13 - 15 October 2003 in Paris
Third Meeting: 17 - 19 March 2004 in Washington, D.C.
Fourth Meeting: 1-3 September 2004 in London
Fifth Meeting: 29 March - 1 April 2005 in Canberra
Sixth Meeting: 14 - 16 September 2005 in Geneva
Seventh Meeting: 24-25 April 2007 in Paris

Topics considered

The Group has completed consideration of all 22 issues concerning non-financial assets in the update of the 1993 SNA, including: general definition of assets and intangibles, originals and copies, leases and contracts, ownership transfer costs, military equipment, research and development, purchased goodwill and other non-produced assets, databases, treatment of land, mineral exploration, government owned assets - cost of capital services, build-own-operate-transfer schemes, capital services and the production account, obsolescence, treatment of cultivated assets and leases and licences.

Products

Documents and final reports of the meetings held so far are available from the OECD (see contact details below)
The Group has prepared papers on all the issues to be considered by the Advisory Expert Group (AEG) on the update of the SNA.

Planned activities

As a consequence of the AEG's recommendation that research and development products be included in the asset boundary, the Group, with the assistance of the OECD's NESTI Group, plans to develop guidelines for the compilation of estimates concerning intellectual products, principally research and development. A joint meeting of the two groups is scheduled for 31 May - 1 June 2006 in Berlin. Second joint meeting is scheduled for 26-27 April 2007 in Paris.

Expected future products

A manual providing guidance on the compilation of estimates concerning intellectual products, principally research and development.
Revision to the OECD manual “Measuring Capital”

Future meetings

With the completion of its work on the 22 issues it was allocated for the update of the 1993 SNA, it was decided that the Canberra II Group did not need to meet any further. The task of preparing a handbook on deriving capital measures of intellectual property products has been handed over to a new OECD task force created for this purpose. The OECD Working Party on
National Accounts (WPNA) provides oversight of the new task force and also the preparation of the revised OECD manual on Measuring Capital.

The chairman of the OECD task force on measurement of intellectual property products is Brent Moulton of the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and its secretary is Charles Aspden of the OECD.

Points of contact

Peter Harper (Chair)
Deputy Australian Statistician , Economic Statistics , Australian Bureau of Statistics
Locked Bag 10
Belconnen , A.C.T. 2616
Australia
Tel: 61-2-6252-5841
E-mail: peter.harper@abs.gov.au

Charles Aspden (Secretariat)
Manager, National Accounts
Statistics Directorate
2, rue André Pascal
75016 Paris
FRANCE
Tel : 01 45 24 14 03
E-mail: charles.aspden@oecd.org