UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics
Eighth Meeting of the UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics
- Singapore
- 24 - 26 June 2025
Overview
The 8th meeting of the UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics will take place in Singapore from 24 - 26 June 2025.
Since its establishment, the Committee has worked to strengthen the foundation of business statistics, supporting the overall quality of economic statistics, and respond to emerging data needs. The Committee's work focuses on five key areas: coordination, development of methodologies and concepts, capacity-building, data compilation, and communication in the areas of business and trade statistics.
The meeting will review the progress of work of its task teams, address follow-up actions to the decisions of the United Nations Statistical Commission, and review new developments and initiatives in business and trade statistics. In addition, the meeting will provide strategic direction on the organization and work programme of the Committee to ensure that it reflects the current efforts by the Committee to better integrate business and trade statistics and also to strengthen the horizontal and vertical integration of business and trade statistics with other statistical domains.
Programme
▼Tuesday, 24 June 2025
9:30 am - 10:00 am
Session 1. Opening remarks and objective of the meeting
- • Alvin Tan (Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry)
- • Gerardo Durand (INEGI, UNCEBTS Interim Chair)
- • Launch of UNCEBTS global repository of country practices (Koh Eng Chuan, Chief Statistician, DOS Singapore)
10:00 am - 10:20 am
Session 2. Election of the Chair
In accordance with paragraph 17 and 18 of the UNCEBTS Mandate and Governance, a Chair will be elected among the members of Committee for a period of three years.
Presentations:
- • Overview of the election process (UNSD)
- • Inception remarks (new Chair)
10:20 am - 10:50 am
Session 3. Follow up to the UNSC decision and introduction of the strategic framework
This session will provide an overview of the decisions of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) in March 2025 and the follow-up work of UNCEBTS. It will review current and upcoming priorities for the work programme on business and trade statistics in countries and international organizations. This session will also present the strategic framework on the integration of business and trade statistics with other statistical domains and provide a strategic discussion on the work programme and future direction of the Committee.
Presentations:
- • UNCEBTS strategic framework (Cristina Neves, Statistics Portugal)
10:50 am - 11:20 am
Coffee break and group photo
11:20 am - 12:30 pm
Session 4. Task Team on International Trade Statistics
This session will review the progress of the Task Team's work on international trade statistics and discuss emerging topics in this area.
Presentations:
- • Progress update (Cristina Neves, Statistics Portugal and Ouljour Houssaine, Office des Changes - Morocco, TT-ITS leaders)
- • Reflection on the globalization workstream i.e., Large Case Unit (Markie Muryawan, UNSD)
- • Compiling informal and household trade as part of HIBTS (Cristina Neves, Statistics Portugal)
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch
2:00 pm - 3:20 pm
Session 5. Task team on International Trade Statistics, continued
The session will provide an update and discuss the way forward on the implementation of HIBTS following its endorsement by the recent UNSC, and the finalization of the revision of trade statistics manuals (IMTS 2026, MSITS2026 and the 2nd volume of MPIBTS) for submission to the next session of the UNSC in 2026.
Presentations:
- • HIBTS (Gerardo Durand, INEGI Mexico, and Cristina Neves, Statistics Portugal)
- • IMTS 2026 (Amy Donelly, Austalian Bureau of Statistics)
- • MSITS 2026 (Barbara D'Andrea, World Trade Organization)
- • MPIBTS vol. 2 (Ouljour Houssaine, Office des Changes - Morocco)
3:20 pm - 3:40 pm
Coffee break
3:40 pm - 5:00 pm
Session 6. UN Handbook of Business Statistics
The session will discuss the way forward to develop a concrete proposal for a Handbook on Business Statistics, including the need for concerted efforts, dedicated resources and prioritization of developing such handbook for reporting back to the next UNSC session.
Presentations:
- • Towards the development of the UN Handbook of Business Statistics (Julian Chow, UNSD)
- • European business statistics manual (Petra Sneijers, Eurostat)
- • Singapore's Administrative-Data-First Approach to Business Statistics (Neo Soo Khee and Suzanne Wong, DOS Singapore)
- • Recommendations on the development of the Handbook of Business Statistics from the developing country perspective (Arthur Johannes Giesberts, World Bank)
▼Wednesday, 25 June 2025
9:00 am - 9:10 am
Session 7. UNSD Director's remark
- • Stefan Schweinfest (Director, UNSD)
9:10 am - 9:30 am
Session 8. SNA and BPM implementation
Presentations:
- • 2025 SNA implementation (Herman Smith, UNSD)
- • BPM7 implementation (Venkateswarlu Josyula, IMF)
9:30 am - 10:50 am
Session 9. Task Team on Business Dynamics, Business Demography and Entrepreneurship
This session will review the progress of the work of the Task Team on business dynamics, demography, and entrepreneurship and discuss emerging topics in this area.
Presentations:
- • Progress update (Gerardo Durand, INEGI Mexico and TT-BDBDE leader)
- • Concept note on Entrepreneurship (Julio Rosa, Statistics Canada)
- • Progress update on the Gender Data Initiative (Annabelle Mourougane, OECD)
- • Template for collecting practices on mainstreaming gender in business and trade statistics (Gerardo Durand, INEGI Mexico)
- • Document on indicators related to the integration of gender in business and trade statistics (Ricardo Gutierrez, INEGI Mexico)
- • Next steps of the TT-BDBDE (Gerardo Durand, INEGI Mexico)
10:50 am - 11:10 am
Coffee break
11:10 am - 12:30 pm
Session 10. Task Team on Statistical Business Registers
This session will review the progress of the work of the Task Team on statistical business registers and discuss emerging topics in this area. Global Initiative on Unique Identifiers for Businesses will also be discussed.
Presentations:
- • Progress update (Hank Hermans, Statistics Netherlands and TT-SBR leader)
- • SBR Maturity Model Toolkit (Cui Hui Min, DOS Singapore)
- • SBR global assessment (Julian Chow, UNSD)
- • Statistical unit (Andrew Allen, ONS)
- • Global initiative on unique identifiers for business (Bastiaan Rooijakkers, Statistics Netherlands, Ricco Dun, GLEIF, and Julian Chow, UNSD)
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch
2:00 pm - 3:20 pm
Session 11. Work programme on Wellbeing and Sustainability
This session will review the progress of the work of the Task Team on wellbeing and sustainability and discuss emerging topics in this area, notably the progress and alignment of programme with the Expert Group on Wellbeing Measurement (EGWM).
Presentations:
- • Progress update (Stefano Menghinello, Istat)
3:20 pm - 3:40 pm
Coffee break
3:40 pm - 5:00 pm
Session 12. Emerging initiatives and capacity development activities on business and trade statistics
The session will discuss the emerging initiatives related to business and trade statistics, such as drafting ESR Framework on Tourism Statistics. The session will also discuss capacity development efforts undertaken by international/regional organizations to support the compilation of business and trade statistics.
Presentations:
- • Towards an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework for tourism businesses (Leandry Moreno, UN Tourism)
- • Work on Business Statistics in the World Bank (Arthur Johannes Giesberts, World Bank)
- • Interagency Task Force on International Trade Statistics on capacity development activities (Barbara D'Andrea, World Trade Organization)
- • Contribution of STATAFRIC and the PAS II Programme (Adoum Gagoloum, African Union Commission)
▼Thursday, 26 June 2025
9:00 am - 10:20 am
Session 13. Task Team on Digitalization
This session will review the progress of the work of the Task Team on digitalization and discuss emerging topics in this area.
Presentations:
- • Progress update (Mark Uhrbach, Statistics Canada and TT-D leader)
- • Update on the Task Group on measuring e-commerce value (Siriphan Wichaidit, Thailand, TG-eCom Chair)
- • Survey of AI in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil (Leonardo Melo and Aline Visconti Rodrigues, Brazil)
10:20 am - 10:40 am
Coffee break
10:20 am - 12:00 pm
Session 14. Industrial Statistics
The session will discuss the way forward for the revision of the international guidelines on industrial statistics.
Presentations:
- • Way forward for the revision of the international guidelines on industrial statistics (Fernando Cantu Bazaldua, UNIDO and Markie Muryawan, UNSD)
- • Navigating emerging data needs in the industrial development (Cheng Wai San and Cui Hui Min, DOS Singapore)
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
Session 15. Closing
- • UNCEBTS Chair
- • UNSD
- • DOS Singapore
