Introduction
The United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) in collaboration with the United Nations Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics (UNCEBTS) and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) is organizing a webinar series on the Global Initiative on Unique Identifiers for Businesses. This initiative was developed to strengthen the transparency on businesses in countries by improving their registration, to improve the availability of unique business identifiers in administrative data sources in countries; and to promote access to and sharing of administrative data for statistical business registers.
The Global Initiative on Unique Identifiers for Businesses was discussed at the 54th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission in March 2023 which endorsed this initiative and encouraged countries and relevant organizations to coordinate their activities in this area in an effort to provide a solid infrastructure for statistical business registers. The related side event organized during the Statistical Commission underlined the need for solid and adequate registration of businesses and elaborated on the increased possibilities and opportunities when having sound business registrations in place, together with the availability of unique identifiers.
The main objectives of the webinar series are to:
- Create awareness of the Global Initiative on Unique Identifiers for Businesses and establish a collaborative environment for countries and international organizations to strengthen the registration system in countries
- Identify possible pilot projects to demonstrate the importance of a sound registration system to improve Statistical Business Registers and the benefits of mapping to a global unique identifier (LEI) and their use to jump start their national systems of unique business identifiers
- Elaborate a work plan to further guide this initiative by adapting the UN Legal Identity Agenda to the business registration and seeking synergies between the business registers and civil registration registers.
The webinar series will consist of three virtual webinars which will be held on the following dates:
- First Webinar - 11 October 2023, 7am - 9:30am (NY time)
- Second Webinar - 7 November 2023, 7am - 9:30 am (NY time)
- Third Webinar - 18 January 2024, 7am - 9:30 am (NY time)
Content of the webinars
The first webinar will provide an overview of the global initiative and underscore the importance of this initiative for the different stakeholders, such as National Statistical Offices, regulatory authorities, and international organizations active in business registration and statistical business registers.
The second webinar will bring together regulatory authorities, national statistical offices and users of national and global unique identifiers for businesses with the objective to identify concrete ways to strengthen the legal registration of businesses and the management of unique identifiers.
The third webinar will provide a platform for business registration stakeholders and the national statistical offices to consider a concrete set of actions to strengthen the management of national unique identifiers for businesses in countries, the mapping to globally unique identifiers, and the access for statistical purposes to this information by National Statistical Offices for developing and maintaining Statistical Business Registers.
Registration
Representatives from National Statistical Offices, Central Banks, regulatory authorities, international organizations active in business registration and statistical business register, and LEI issuing organizations will be invited to participate in the webinar series.
Please register here. Further information on the Webinar series, including the connection details for the meetings, will be sent to registered participants in due course.