Canberra Group / Household Statistics (Completed)

Capital Stocks / Canberra I (Completed)
  Measurement of Non-financial Assets / Canberra II (Completed)
Delhi Group / Informal Sector Statistics
London Group / Enviromental Accounting
Ottawa Group / Price Statistics
Paris Group / Labour and Compensation (Completed)
Rio Group / Poverty Statistics (Completed)
Wiesbaden Group on Business Registers (formerly Roundtable on Business Survey Frames)
Siena Group / Social Statistics (Completed)
Voorburg Group /Services Statistics
  Washington Group / Disability Statistics
  Oslo Group / Energy Statistics
  Wye Group / Statistics on Rural Development & Agriculture Household Income

VOORBURG GROUP ON SERVICES STATISTICS

Purpose

The Voorburg Group on Services Statistics was created in 1986, in response to a request from the United Nations Statistical Office (UNSO), for assistance in developing service statistics. The first meeting, hosted by the Netherlands Statistical Office (CBS) was held in January of 1987 in Voorburg ( Netherlands), from which the group derives its name.

The purpose of the Group is to address issues related to the production of services statistics, including service product outputs and inputs, the estimation of the real product of service activities, price indices of service products and industries, and their implications for product and industry classification (Central Product Classification (CPC) and International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC)).

In 2005, the VG received a renewed mandate from the UNSC concerning its objective, focus, and scope. The objective of the VG is to establish an internationally comparable methodology for measuring the constant dollar outputs of the service industries. The focus of the VG is to develop concepts, methods, and best practices in the area of services. The scope of the VG is centered on producer price indices (PPIs) for services, turnover by products, and classifications.

The Voorburg Group has contributed over the years to building up and sharing a considerable and growing body of knowledge on Service Sector Statistics. It has prompted international cooperation in the development of standards and assisted in resolving statistical and measurement challenges in the Service Sector.

Participants at the five last meetings

National institutes

Australia: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Austria: Statistics Austria (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Belgium: Statistics Belgium (2000)
Brasil: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografica e Estatistica (2002, 2003)
Canada: Statistics Canada (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
China: Statistical Office of China (2001, 2002, 2003); Statistical Office of China/Hong Kong (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003), Statistical Office of China/Macao (2003) National Bureau of Statistics of China (2003, 2006,2007); Census Statistics Department (2003); Statistics and Census Services (2003)
Czech Republic: Statistical Office of the Czech Republic (2001, 2005, 2006,2007)
Denmark:: Statistics Denmark (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Estonia: Statistical Office of Estonia (2005)
Fiji Island: Fiji Island Bureau of Statistics (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Finland: Statistics Finland (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
France: Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Germany: Deutsche Bundesbank (2006), Statistisches Bundesamt (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005); Federal Statistical Office of Germany (2003, 2005, 2006,2007)
Greece: National Statistical Service (2000, 2006)
Hungary: Central Statistical Office (2002, 2004, 2006,2007) Ireland: Central Statistics Office Ireland (2006,2007) Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Italy: Instituto Nazionale di Statistica (2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006)
Japan: Japan Statistics Bureau (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006); Bank of Japan (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007); Ministry of Economy Trade & Industry (2003); Ministry of Public Management, Home, Posts & Telecommunications (2004) Korea (Republic of): Statistical Office of Korea (2000,2007); Bank of Korea (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Latvia: Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (2005, 2006) Lithuania: Statistics Lithuania (2006) Luxembourg: STATEC (2006)
Malaysia: Department of Statistics (1999, 2000, 2003)
Mexico: National Institute of Statistics and Geogra0phy (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Netherlands: Statistics Netherlands (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
New Zealand: Statistics New Zealand (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Norway: Statistics Norway (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007) Poland: Central Statistics Office of Poland (2006)
Portugal: Instituto Nacional de Estatistica (2002)
Singapore: Department of Statistics (1999,2007) Slovenia: Statistical Office of Republic of Slovenia (2006)
Spain: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Sweden: Statistics Sweden (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
Thailand: National Statistical Office (1999)
United Kingdom: Office of National Statistics (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006,2007); Department of Trade and Industry (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006)
United States: Bureau of the Census (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007); Bureau of Labor Statistics (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007); United States Department of Commerce (2002,2007)
Vietnam: General Statistical Office (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)

International organizations

United Nations Statistics Division (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005)
International Monetary Fund (1999, 2000, 2004)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2007)
European Union: European Commission (2003, 2004, 2005); Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006); DG Entreprises (2000, 2003, 2004, 2005); Internal Market and Services Directorate General (Brussels) (2005)
European Central Bank (2000, 2001, 2002)
Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (2003)
World Tourism Organization (2004)

Meetings

The Group meets annually for a week. Previous meetings were held as follows:

1987 Voorburg, the Netherlands
1987 Stockholm, Sweden
1988 Wiesbaden, Germany
1989 Ottawa, Canada
1990 Paris, France
1991 Helsinki, Finland
1992 Williamsburg, United States of America
1993 Oslo, Norway
1994 Sydney, Australia
1995 Voorburg, the Netherlands
1996 Newport, Wales
1997 Copenhagen, Denmark
1998 Rome, Italy
1999 Christchurch, New Zealand
2000 Madrid, Spain
2001 Örebro, Sweden
2002 Nantes, France
2003 Tokyo, Japan
2004 Ottawa, Canada
2005 Helsinki, Finland
2006 Wiesbaden, Germany
2007 Seoul, South Korea
2008 Aguascalientes, Mexico (forthcoming)

Topics considered

In the early years, the Group contributed to the development of the services areas of the two United Nations Classifications, International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (ISIC), Rev 3 and the Central Product Classification (CPC). Subsequently, the topics considered were expanded to address services statistics more generally, including topics such as prices of service products; international trade in services; and employment, skills and occupations in the service sector. Since 2005, in accordance with its Vision document and its renewed mandate, the Group has re-focused its work on the development of new concepts, methods and best practices in three areas: 1) classification issues, 2) output measures and 3) price indices.

Products

Model Surveys

In the past, model surveys have been developed for computer services (see Computer Service: A Model Survey of Computer Services (Statistical Papers, Series M, No. 81)), telecommunications, audio-visual services, marketing research and advertising services, and insurance services. More recently, model surveys have been developed for employment services (1997), education services (1998), demand for services (1999) and ICT usage by enterprises and households (2001-2002) and the model surveys have been revisited (2005). The models are available in the corresponding papers on the web site of the Voorburg Group (http://www.voorburggroup.org).

Producer price indices for services

The decision was taken at the meeting held in Madrid 2000 to develop a model for presenting international practices in different services activities concerning the measurement of PPI. Principal papers have been completed for the areas of accounting services (2001), telecommunication services (2001), legal services (2001), real estate (2001), advertising services (2002, 2004), road freight transport (2002), engineering services (2002), prepackaged software (2003), air passenger and freight transportation (2004), Legal activity, auditing and tax consulting services (2004), Courier Services (2005), Labour recruitment (2005), Road Freight Services (2006), Business and Management Consultancy (2006), and Architectural Services (2006), Freight Transport by Road (2007), Management Consultancy (2007), Computer Services (2007), and Software Consultancy Services (2007). The papers are available on the web site of the Voorburg Group (http://www.voorburggroup.org).

Inventories

An inventory of national collection of service producer prices has been drawn up since 1997 and is updated yearly. An inventory of national current practice relating to the surveying of detailed turnover by product was established in 2003 (both are also available on the Voorburg Group web site). A complete list and all the papers presented to and discussed at Voorburg Group meetings since its inception are available on the Voorburg Group web site.

Ongoing Methodological Work Plan

In order to produce more concrete deliverables, the Voorburg Group has recently adopted a more structured approach in terms of its work plan and proceedings. In acknowledging the parallel and equally important development of turnover (output measures), prices and classifications, the Group made an explicit effort to better balance its agenda among these three areas. This new orientation was initially reflected in the 2006 meeting agenda and continued for the 2007 meeting, contributing to the great success of both these meetings.

2006 Meeting

At this 2006 meeting, the Voorburg Group focused on the development of concepts, methods, and best practices in the area of services. The scope of the meeting sessions centered on turnover (output measures), classification, and prices, and sessions were structured around a review of output and price statistics for service industries with the objective of creating comparable data across programs for the improvement of input data for national accounts.

The Voorburg Group created a task force with a mandate to develop, in advance of the meeting, a structured content development framework (CDF) for use by member countries to address the development of services prices and turnover/output data, with links to classifications and national accounts. The CDF, which was completed and available for use by December 2005, specified a structured approach for developing mini-presentations (separately done on prices and turnover/output) and sector papers (covering prices, outputs, and classification) for use in future Voorburg Group meetings.

In 2006, the Group focused its work mainly in three major areas:

1. Establishing a Content Development Framework (CDF) to guide the direction and work on the different Service Sector industries.

2. Developing a thesaurus for prices methodology.

3. Developing an industry scorecard tool to assess the various countries’ progress toward developing output and price data for various service industries and products.

Content Development Framework (CDF)

The purpose of the CDF is to provide a much more structured approach to developing mini-presentations and sector papers covering different service industries and for organizing the format and conduct of the Voorburg Group meetings.

The CDF essentially calls for industry specific papers to be prepared by participating countries according to a predefined template, including specific methodological guidelines, and requires that the papers cover pre-established topics related to the Group’s three main domains of interest (turnover, prices and classification), as well as the national accounting perspective.

This approach ensures that the content of the papers are more comparable and standardized, thus facilitating the exchange of knowledge and expertise as well as discussion of issues. The papers are presented, critiqued and discussed in mini-presentations during the Group’s meeting (and available on the Group’s website).

This substantive content material as well as the output from the discussions, in turn, serve as key inputs to produce, discuss and adopt Sector papers (presented in the following year) that present a set of key methodological guidelines for the development and production of Service industry statistics. As concrete deliverables from the Voorburg Group meetings, these sector papers are intended to become reference material for statisticians that oversee the development and compilation of Service Sector statistics in the various countries and international organizations.

2007 meeting

In 2007, building on the success of using the CDF, the Group focused on the following:

1. Finalizing and formally adopting the thesaurus for prices methodology, including common terminologies for prices, so that all participating countries and international organizations can speak the same language in terms of pricing methodologies. The final version adopted at the 2007 meeting included concrete examples accompanying each of the seven pricing methods and improved definitions of each of the seven pricing methods.

2. Finalizing and formally adopting Sector Papers on two service industries covered by mini-presentations at the 2006 meeting: Freight Transport by Road (ISIC 4923) and Management Consultancy (ISIC 7020).

3. Presenting and discussing a General Methodology Paper including theoretical and practical issues and key points of a cross-cutting nature for the Service Sector as a whole. These key points of a general nature are provided to enable the Group to avoid rehashing the same points when discussing specific industries.

4. Presenting and discussing three presentations by three national accountants from three different countries (South Korea, Australia, and the United States) covering key issues to be addressed by the Voorburg Group to better ascertain and document the specific Service Sector source data used by the national accounts to improve measures of real GDP. Key points were elicited as input to the development of a final report on national accounts to be prepared and presented at the 2008 meeting.

Also at the 2007 meeting, papers on IT Services were presented, discussed, and key points were raised as input to the Sector Paper on IT Services that will be prepared for and delivered at the 2008 Voorburg Group meeting.

In addition, the Voorburg group continued to monitor, via a survey that produces the industry scorecards, the degree to which the countries have made progress on the development of output and price statistics for various industries and products covered by the Service Sector. Results were discussed for a survey of country progress on the five industries comprising IT service industries:

a. Computer Programming Activities (ISIC 6201)

b. Information Technology Consultancy and Computer Facilities Management Activities (ISIC 6202)

c. Other Information Technology Service Activities (ISIC 6209)

d. Data Processing, Hosting and Related Services (ISIC 6311)

e. Web Portals (ISIC 6312)

Priority Objectives (All Objectives Were Met at the 2007 Meeting)

The 2007 meeting was a success as all the key objectives were met. The new strategic direction and the more structured approach for the statistical related work was successful and led to :

  • An improved process by which knowledge is created, communicated and shared and by which best practices are adopted under the auspices of the Voorburg Group;
  • The development and compilation of sector papers to serve as reference material for countries in developing Service Sector programs.
  • The development of coherent, reliable and internationally comparable statistics on Service Sector industries.

Future work Agenda (For 2008 and onwards)

  • Group decision to continue with the development of a Content Development Framework (CDF).
  • Preparation of revised guidelines for the format and content of Sector Papers (also for use by Revisited Sector Papers – see below).
  • Preparation of a 1) Sector P aper on IT Services; 2) Revisited Sector Papers * on Accounting, Real Estate, Advertising, and Engineering; and 3) Mini-presentations on Wired, Wireless, Satellite, and Telecommunications and on Wholesale Trade according to the new CDF.
  • Proposed schedule for industry specific papers for the next four years (2008 to 2011).
  • In addition, four task forces were formed: Task Force 1: to obtain and disseminate country report information on the six industry/industry groups to be covered at the 2008 meeting; Task Force 2: to review documentation on turnover done by the UN Expert Group and make suggestions and recommendations to the Voorburg Group and then to the UNSC; Task Force 3: to develop a glossary of terms (e.g., captive units) to append to the General Methodology Paper; and Task Force 4: to add to the Pricing Thesaurus examples of how people in various countries actually apply the different definitions of pricing methodologies (for 2008, an example will be added by France and Sweden on how they apply charge out methodology).

Planned Activities

The next annual meeting of the Voorburg group will be held from September 22 to 26, 2008 in Aguascalientes, Mexico. An agenda is being developed, based on suggested ISIC industries or industry groups to be covered. Further details will be posted to this site as they are developed.

New Activities

Enhancing and simplifying the Statistics Canada Voorburg Website so that the papers presented at the annual meetings could be classified and accessed under more than one heading.

The papers from the previous meetings of the Group are available at:
http://www.voorburggroup.org

Point of contact

Louis Marc Ducharme
Director General, Economic Statistics Branch
Statistics Canada
Email : Louismarc.ducharme@statcan.ca


________________________
* The preparation of Revisited Sector Papers entails building upon previously issued Mini-presentations on prices (presented prior to 2006) for an industry/industry group by adding turnover/output details. The Revisited Sector Papers will follow the revised guidelines for the format and content of Sector Papers.