Regional Seminar on International Trade Statistics
Organized by UNSD, DGCIS, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and CSO, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India in cooperation with EU-ASEAN COMPASS project

  • New Delhi, India
  • 3 - 6 November 2014

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), Ministry of Commerce and Industry and CSO, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India in cooperation with EU-ASEAN COMPASS project jointly organize a Regional Seminar on International Trade Statistics from 3 to 6 November in New Delhi, India.

The objective of seminar is to improve the understanding of these recommendations and to share experiences on how to possibly improve the implementation in national statistical systems with better coordination and cooperation among data providers and compilers. And the ultimate goal is to produce the highest quality of international trade statistics, which are relevant for the policy makers at home and which are also comparable at the regional and international levels.

The seminar would be attended by official statisticians from national statistical offices as well as from central banks. One of the goals of seminar is to bring the communities of statisticians closer together both nationally and internationally. Within the framework of Integrated Economic Statistics, it is necessary for national stakeholders to establish working communication channel, collaborate in finding solutions for measurement problems and streamline the production of statistics. At the practical side, the central bank and the statistical office need to work together to produce high-quality trade and balance of payment statistics for evidence-based policy making.

For more detailed information, please see the Concept Note and Draft Agenda.

Event Updates

Monday, 3 November 2014

Regional Seminar on International Trade Statistics

Opening statements were delivered by Indian officials and representatives from UNSD and ASEAN. All speakers emphasized the importance of international trade statistics in the context of economic globalization as policy makers attempt to understand inter-dependency between national and foreign economies through trade. In the morning session, presentations by UNSD, AUC, Philippines, ASEAN and Indonesia attempted to resolve challenges of compilation of international merchandise trade statistics. Many questions were posed on the afternoon session of external trade indices following the presentations by Indian Statistical Institute, ITC, Mongolia, UNSD and EU/ASEAN COMPASS. At the end of the day, participants were split to participate in group discussion.

3 November 2014 @ 15:30

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Regional Seminar on International Trade Statistics WTO, Korea, Indonesia, UNCTAD, India, and ASEAN-Stat made presentations on topics including introduction to methods and concepts of statistics of international trade in services (including MSITS 2010 Compilers Guide), country practices in data compilation/dissemination, and activities of international organizations. In the afternoon session, the participants went on technical trip to two Indian IT companies providing ICT and BPO services (Cadence and Tech Mahindra) in Naido Special Economic Zone to understand better about their roles in global value chain.

4 November 2014 @ 15:30

Day 1: Monday, 3 November

09:00 - 09:30
Registration
09:30 - 10:15
Inaugural Programme
  1. Welcome address by Director General, CSO
  2. Opening remarks by UNSD by Ronald Jansen, Chief of Trade Statistics Branch
  3. Opening remarks by ASEAN by Daw Malar Aung, Deputy Director General of CSO Myanmar and Chair of the ASEAN Community Statistical System Committee
  4. Inaugural Address by Dr. T. C. Anant, Chief Statistician of India & Secretary MOS&PI
  5. Keynote Address by Sri Rajeev Kher, Secretary Department of Commerce
  6. Vote of Thanks by Dr. D. Sinha, DG, DGCI&S
10:15 - 10:30
Group Photo
10:30 - 10:45
Coffee Break
10:45 - 11:15
Pre-session - Setting the stage
  1. Adoption of draft agenda and administrative matters
  2. Progress report on the measurement on trade and economic globalization (UNSD)
11:15 - 12:30
Session I - Challenges of compilation of international merchandise trade statistics (Part I)
  1. Introduction to International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) 2010 Compilers Manual (UNSD)
  2. Compiling IMTS 2010 new data items: Imports-FOB, Country of Consignment, Customs Procedure Codes, Mode of Transport (Philippines)
  3. IMTS data collection at ASEAN-STAT (ASEAN)
12:30 - 14:00
Lunch
14:00 - 14:45
Session I - Challenges of compilation of international merchandise trade statistics (Part II)
  1. Informal Cross Border: the African experience (UNSD on behalf of African Union Commission)
  2. Ensuring quality of quantity information (Indonesia)
  3. Preliminary report and analysis on revision of BEC (UNSD)
14:45 - 15:30
Session II - External trade indices (Part I)
  1. Revision on Indian trade indices methodology (Indian Statistical Institute)
  2. Unit values based trade indices (ITC)
  3. Compilation of trade statistics including trade indices from BOP perspective (Mongolia)
15:30 - 15:45
Coffee Break
15:45 - 16:30
Session II - External trade indices (Part II)
  1. Forthcoming global assessment on external trade indices (UNSD)
  2. Unit values vs. Prices Indices (EU/ASEAN COMPASS)
16:30 - 17:30
Group Discussion 1: Implementation of IMTS 2010 and compilation of external trade indices

Day 2: Tuesday, 4 November

09:00 - 10:30
Session III - Challenges of compilation of statistics of international trade in services (Part I)
  1. Introduction to Manual of Statistics on Trade in Services 2010 Compilers Guide (WTO)
  2. Compilation of other business services items (Korea)
  3. Data collection through direct reporting (Indonesia)
  4. Trade in ICT and ICT enabled services (UNCTAD)
10:30 - 10:45
Coffee Break
10:45 - 11:45
Session III - Challenges of compilation of statistics of international trade in services (Part II)
  1. Measuring Business Process Outsourcing (RBI, DGCIS - India)
  2. SITS data collection at ASEAN-STAT (ASEAN)
11:45 - 12:30
Session IV - Travel and Tourism Statistics
  1. Introduction to IRTS and compiling supply-side tourism statistics (UNCTAD)
  2. Compilation of BOP travel services (Thailand)
  3. Compilation of Tourism Satellite Accounts (Bangladesh)
12:30 - 14:00
Lunch
14:00 - 17:30
Session V – Field trip to Indian enterprise providing Business Process Outsourcing
  • Visit to Indian enterprise, New Delhi

Day 3: Wednesday, 5 November

09:00 - 10:30
Group Discussion 2: Implementation of MSITS 2010 and Tourism statistics
10:30 - 10:45
Coffee Break
10:45 - 12:30
Session VI – Integrated Economic Statistics, Linking trade and business statistics and FATS
  1. Integrated Economic Statistics-Business Register (UNCTAD)
  2. Linking trade and business statistics (UNSD)
  3. Indian experiences in Integrated Economic Statistics & FATS (RBI - India)
  4. Mode of Supply/FATS (WTO)
  5. Institutional arrangements for trade statistics in Maldives (Maldives)
12:30 - 14:00
Lunch
14:00 - 15:30
Session VII – Improving quality of trade statistics (Part I)
  1. Asymmetry in trade in services (WTO)
  2. Asymmetry in merchandise trade (UNSD)
  3. Analysis of the consistency of trade statistics (ITC)
15:30 - 15:45
Coffee Break
15:45 - 16:30
Session VII – Improving quality of trade statistics (Part II)
  1. Indicators of quality (EU-ASEAN COMPASS)
  2. Malaysia quality report and metadata (Malaysia)
16:30 - 17:30
Group Discussion 3: Linking trade and business statistics, and improving quality

Day 4: Thursday, 6 November

09:00 - 11:00
Session VIII – Dissemination and the use of international trade statistics
  1. Trade SDMX Data Structure Definitions (UNSD/WTO)
  2. Exploring trade data using advanced data visualization (UNSD)
  3. The use of data in trade policy (ESCAP)
  4. TradeMap for Malawi (ITC)
11:00 - 11:30
Coffee Break
11:30 - 13:00
Closing Session
  1. Roundtable discussion: implementation of IMTS 2010, MSITS 2010, IRTS 2008
  2. Conclusion and recommendations of the Regional Seminar
13:00 - 14:30
Lunch

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