VOORBURG GROUP ON SERVICE STATISTICS

Purpose

The Voorburg Group on Service Statistics was created in 1986, in response to a request from the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), for assistance in developing service statistics. The first meeting, hosted by the Netherlands Statistical Office (CBS) was held in January of 1987 in Voorburg, 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.

Year organized

1986

Participants at the last five meetings

National institutes

Australia: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Austria: Statistics Austria (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Belgium: Statistics Belgium (2000)
Brasil: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografica e Estatistica (2002, 2003), FundaÇão Getulio Vargas (FGV) (2008)
Canada: Statistics Canada (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
China: National Bureau of Statistics of China (2003, 2006,2007,2008); Czech Republic: Statistical Office of the Czech Republic (2001, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Denmark:: Statistics Denmark (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Estonia: Statistical Office of Estonia (2005)
Fiji Island: Fiji Island Bureau of Statistics (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Finland: Statistics Finland (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
France: Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Germany: Deutsche Bundesbank (2006), Statistisches Bundesamt (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005); Federal Statistical Office of Germany (2003, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Greece: National Statistical Service (2000, 2006)
Hungary: Central Statistical Office (2002, 2004, 2006,2007) India: Ministry of Commerce and Industry (2008) Ireland: Central Statistics Office Ireland (2006,2007,2008) Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Italy: Instituto Nazionale di Statistica (2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006)
Japan: Japan Statistics Bureau (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,2008); Bank of Japan (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008); Korea (Republic of): Statistical Office of Korea (2000,2007); Bank of Korea (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Latvia: Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (2005, 2006) Lithuania: Statistics Lithuania (2006) Luxembourg: STATEC (2006), European Commission EUROSTAT (2008)
Malaysia: Department of Statistics (1999, 2000, 2003)
Mexico: National Institute of Statistics and Geogra0phy (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,2008); PROMEXICO (2008); Secretaria de Turismo-Aguascalientes (2008)
Netherlands: Statistics Netherlands (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
New Zealand: Statistics New Zealand (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Norway: Statistics Norway (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008) Poland: Central Statistics Office of Poland (2006,2008)
Portugal: Instituto Nacional de Estatistica (2002)
Singapore: Department of Statistics (1999,2007,2008) Slovenia: Statistical Office of Republic of Slovenia (2006)
Spain: Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Sweden: Statistics Sweden (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008)
Thailand: National Statistical Office (1999)
United Kingdom: Office of National Statistics (2003, 2004, 2006,2007,2008); Department of Trade and Industry (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006)
United States: Bureau of the Census (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008); Bureau of Labor Statistics (2004, 2005, 2006,2007,2008); 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)
ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (2008)
World Tourism Organization (2004)

Previous 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

Next meeting scheduled

• Oslo , Norway , September 14 – 18, 2009

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

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), Wired, Wireless, Satellite and other Telecommunication Services (2008), Wholesale and General and Specialized Trade (2008), Real Estate Services (2008), Accounting, Bookkeeping and Auditing Activities and Consultancy (2008), and Advertising and Market Research and Public Opinion Polling (2008). 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 the last few years, in order to produce more concrete deliverables, the Voorburg Group has 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 has 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 in 2007 and 2008, contributing to the great success of these meetings.

2007 meeting

In 2007, building on the success of previous meetings, 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 that was 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 which was presented at the 2008 Voorburg Group meeting in Aguascalientes.

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.

2008 meeting

In 2008, in addition to the sessions on Mini-presentations and Sector Paper, the Group started revisiting previous sector papers in order to update or complete them to reflect the most recent updates for both turnover and Producer Price Indices. In 2008 the Group focused on the following:

• Mini-presentations - A series of mini-presentations covering two sectors: I- Wired, Wireless, Satellite, Other Telecommunications; and II- Wholesale and General and Specialized Trade.
• Sector Paper – The Group finalized and adopted the Sectorpapers on IT service industry which summarize last year’s mini-presentations (on prices, output and classification).
• Revisited Sector Papers (first done for 2008) - The session on Revisited Sector Papers is a new activity of the Group, which aims at updating previous documentation derived from past mini- presentations on prices (presented prior to 2006) for an industry/industry group by adding turnover/output details.

The following sectors were subject to revision: - (1) Accounting (2) Real Estate (3) Advertising and (4) Engineering.

• Countryprogress reports and Industry Scorecard Summaries – Progress reports were provided by many member countries. These summaries were used to assess VG country achievement in all areas and serve as part of the VG’s concrete deliverables. Industry scorecards have been produced for 19 industries during the 2006, 2207, and 2008 meetings.

What’s planned for 2009?

Future Agenda :

• Revisited Sector papers – Given the wider participation in 2008, it was decided to expand the activity on revisited papers for 2009. It is planned to have papers on Air Transportation ( Austria), Rental and Leasing Services ( Canada), Employment Services ( Poland). Investigation and Security Services ( Germany and Israel), Advertising and Market Research and Public Opinion Polling ( UK and Czeck), and Real Estate, excluding imputed Rents ( Finland and USA).
• Sector Papers : The discussion held in Aguascalientes focused on the following sectors: Wired, Wireless, Satellite, and TelecommunicationsIndustries (ISIC 61) ; and Trade Margins (covering Wholesale Trade and Retail Trade). These discussions will lead towards the development of two sector papers in 2009.
• Mini-presentations - For 2009, the following three sector have been selected for mini-presentations:
  
  1. Railway Transportation - PPI ( Finland, Germany and Canada) . Turnover/Output (Sweden, Canada, Germany and Japan).
  2. Water Transportation - PPI ( Sweden, Germany and Australia) . Turnover/Output (Sweden, Spain and Poland).
  (12 mini-presentations in all for these two industries)
  3. Banking and Credit - PPI ( Canada, UK, US; and Japan (tentative). Turnover/Output (Canada, US, Mexico; and Norway (tentative).
  Banking and Credit was originally scheduled to be discussed in 2010but it was felt that it was important to get a head start due to the complexity of this industry/industry group.

In addition to its work on the Mini-presentations and Sector Papers, the Group has continued some of its task forces and has launched a few new ones:

• Task Force 1 : Continue VG Task Force to obtain and disseminate country report information on the 6 industry/industry groups to be covered next year.
• Task Force 2 : (Closely Related to Task Force 1) : Develop a short questionnaire to collect any progress updates on industries covered since the advent of the country progress report scorecards in 2006. Would cover the 19 industry/industry groups that have been measured so far.
• Task Force 3 : Develop and report on a case study on IT outsourcing for selected companies in France, the United States, Sweden, and India. It is to be presented as part of a separate session on the Effects of Globalization on Outsourcing at the VG 2009 meeting.

New website

All the papers from the previous meetings of the Voorburg Group, going back to 1987, can be accessed through our new website at: www.voorburggroup.org This website has been redesigned and expanded to provide additional information and improved search capabilities.

Point of contact

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