UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics
Ninth Meeting of the UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics
- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- 23 - 25 June 2026
Overview
The 9th meeting of the UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics will take place in Addis Ababa from 23 - 25 June 2026.
Since its establishment, the Committee has worked to strengthen basic business and trade statistics to improve overall economic statistics and respond to emerging needs. The Committee focuses on coordination, development of methodology and concepts, capacity-building, data, and communication on business and trade statistics. The Committee's strategic view of business and trade statistics is rooted in the horizontal and vertical integration of these statistics across statistical domains.
The meeting will review the progress of work of its task teams, address follow-up actions on the decisions of the United Nations Statistical Commission and review new developments and initiatives in business and trade statistics. In addition, the meeting will review current and future priorities for business and trade statistics, present a framework for integrating these with other statistical domains, and host a strategic discussion on the Committee's work programme and direction.
Priority agenda items of this UNCEBTS Meeting include:
- (a) Reflection on the overall strategic and prioritization of the UNCEBTS work programmes;
- (b) Compilation and use of Business and Trade Statistics in Africa;
- (c) Progress of the work of the task teams on Statistical Business Registers; International Trade Statistics; Business Dynamics, Business Demography and Entrepreneurship; Digitalization; and of the work stream on Wellbeing and Sustainability;
- (d) Update on the newly established task team on Industrial Statistics, including its plan to revise the manuals on Industrial Statistics;
- (e) Progress update on the recently endorsed Compendium of Technical Notes on Business and Trade Statistics;
- (f) Implementation strategy for the newly endorsed IMTS 2026 and MSITS 2026;
Programme
▼Day 1 - Tuesday, 23 June 2026
9:15 am - 9:30 am
Session 1. Opening session
- • Ministerial Opening Remarks (H.E. Mr. Endalew Mekonen, State Minister, Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration, Ethiopia)
9:30 am - 10:15 am
Session 2. Welcoming remarks and objective of the meeting
- • UNSD (Shantanu Mukherjee, Acting Director) (recording)
- • UNCEBTS Chair (Hank Hermans, CBS Netherlands)
- • STATAFRIC (Adoum Gagoloum)
- • UNECA (William Muhwava)
- • Ethiopian Statistical Services (Dr. Beker Shale, Director General)
Followed by information on logistical support by the host organization and a group photo.
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Session 3. The UNSC 2026 decision and reflection on the UNCEBTS strategic work programme in 2026/2027
This session will provide an overview of the decisions of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC) in March 2026 and the follow-up work of UNCEBTS in 2026/2027. The session will review current and future priorities for business and trade statistics and host a strategic discussion on the Committee's work programme and direction.
- • UNCEBTS work programme in 2026 and 2027 (Hank Hermans, CBS Netherlands)
- • Preparing for the implementation of the 2025 SNA (Matthias Reister, UNSD)
- • Round table discussion
- – Assessment of the compliance/alignment of the activities carried out with the strategic document presented at the June 2025 meeting
- – Identification of any necessary adjustments to the strategic document
11:30 am - 12:30 am
Session 4. Special Panel Session on the Need for and Use of Business and Trade Statistics in Africa
The upcoming special session will focus on the importance of business and trade statistics within the African continent, including with a view of 2025 SNA implementation. It aims to highlight why accurate and comprehensive economic data are essential for informing policy decisions, fostering trade development, and enhancing regional growth. Participants will discuss current challenges in collecting and using business and trade data, explore opportunities to improve statistical systems, and emphasize the role of these statistics in supporting sustainable economic progress across Africa.
- • Panelist 1: Issoufou Seidou Sanda (UNECA)
- • Panelist 2: Thierry Coulet (STATAFRIC consultant)
- • Panelist 3: Vincent Musoke (East African Community (EAC))
- • Panelist 4: Leysa Maty Sall (UNECA)
- • Panelist 5: Anthony Kofi Krakah (Ghana Statistical Service)
- • Panelist 6: Sagaren Pillay (Statistics South Africa)
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch
2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Session 5. Task team on Industrial Statistics
This session will review the progress of the Task Team's work on industrial statistics and discuss emerging topics in this area.
- • Overview of activities/progress report of the Task Team (Christina Karamichalakou, ELSTAT)
- • Updates on Revision of International Statistical Standards for Industrial Statistics (Deepak Dhanawat, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation of India)
- • Impact of 2025 SNA on Industrial Statistics (Fernando Cantu Bazaldua, UNIDO)
- • Outcome of Vienna Meeting (Christina Karamichalakou, ELSTAT)
- • Administrative Data and New Data Sources - Bridging Gaps in Official Statistical Systems (Deepak Dhanawat, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation of India)
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Session 6. 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.
- • Overview of activities/progress report of the Task Team (Hui Min Cui, SINGSTAT)
- • Progress update on the Working Group on SBR New Technologies (Andrew Allen, ONS)
- • SBR Research Group on Data Integration (Hui Min Cui, SINGSTAT)
- • Statistical Business Register at Statistics Mauritius (Sariff Mungralee, Statistics Mauritius)
- • Guidelines for Building Statistical Business Registers in Africa (Symphorien Ndang Tabo, AfDB)
- • Update on Global Initiative on Unique Identifiers for Businesses (Bastiaan Rooijakkers, Statistics Netherlands, and Ricco Dun, GLEIF)
▼Day 2 - Wednesday, 24 June 2026
9:00 am - 10:30 am
Session 7. 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.
- • Overview of activities/progress report of the Task Team (Cristina Neves, Portugal; Houssaine Ouljour, Morocco)
- • IMTS and MSITS Compilation Guidance Notes (CGN) (Markie Muryawan, UNSD)
- • Integrating Informal Cross-Border Trade and International Trade Conducted by the Households into Business Statistics (Cristina Neves, Portugal)
- • Informal Cross-Border Trade Survey in Rwanda (Dieudonne Hitimana, National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda)
- • Informal Cross-Border Trade data Collection in Africa (Vital Habinshuti, STATAFRIC consultant)
10:45 am - 11:30 am
Session 8. Wellbeing and Sustainability and Tourism Statistics
This session will review the progress of the work on wellbeing and sustainability and discuss emerging topics in this area.
- • Update on the work stream on wellbeing and sustainability, including the relevant activities (Stefano Menghinello, ISTAT)
- • Structural change and environmental sustainability: the case of Tourism in Italy (Stefano Menghinello, ISTAT)
- • Update on the work program on tourism statistics (Anna Garbarczyk, UNWTO)
- • High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP Report (Matthias Reister, UNSD)
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Session 9. 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.
- • Overview of activities/progress report of the Task Team (Esmond McLean, Bank of Jamaica)
- • Development of business indicators for the measurement of Artificial Intelligence (Esmond McLean, Bank of Jamaica)
- • OECD Handbook on Measuring AI in ICT Surveys (Nils Adriansson, OECD)
- • Digital Economy and Outsourcing in Morocco (Housseine Ouljour, Morocco)
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Session 10. 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.
- • Overview of activities/progress report of the Task Team (Gerardo Durand, INEGI)
- • Progress of the work on the Note "Measuring Entrepreneurship" (Julio Rosa, StatCanada)
- • Integrating gender into business and trade statistics (Gerardo Durand, INEGI, and Ricardo Gutierrez, INEGI)
- • Measuring Gender in Trade Statistics in Kenya (Alex Olando Muhanji, Kenya Revenue Authority)
3:45 pm - 4:30 pm
Session 11. Capacity development activities on business and trade statistics
The session will discuss capacity development efforts undertaken by international/regional organizations to support the compilation of business and trade statistics.
- • Implementation of IMTS and MSITS 2026 (Vysaul Nyirongo, UNSD)
- • Service Trade Statistics Academy (Barbara D'Andrea Adrian, WTO)
- • Alignment with 2025 SNA Implementation (Matthias Reister, UNSD)
- • MyActa software for the collection of data on informal cross-border trade and planned capacity building activities on its application in pilot countries in Afric (Onno Hoffmeister, UNCTAD)
- • Capacity building in Africa (Adoum Gagoloum, STATAFRIC)
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Session 12. Emerging and other initiatives on business and trade statistics
The session will discuss the emerging initiatives related to business and trade statistics.
▼Day 3 - Thursday, 25 June 2026
9:00 am - 9:45 am
Session 13. Cross-cutting issues part 1: Compendium of Technical Notes on Business Statistics
The session will discuss the progress in the development of the Compendium including the timelines and deliverables.
10:00 am - 11:30 am
Session 14. Cross-cutting issues part 2: Substantive Topics
The session will discuss the progress in various cross-cutting substantive topics.
- • Response Burden Management (Markie Muryawan, UNSD)
- • Guidance Note on Large Case Units (Cristina Neves, Portugal, and Nancy Snyder, UNSD)
- • Enhancing Data Quality for Multinational Enterprises: European Guidelines for Large Cases Units (Petra Sneijers, Eurostat)
- • Integrating geospatial information into business statistics: Mexico's experience (Gerardo Durand, INEGI)
- • Singapore's Experience in Multi-Source Data Integration and Integrating Business & People Data in the Statistical Business Register (Hui Min Cui, SINGSTAT)
- • Intersectionality in statistics (Viginta Ivaškaitė-Tamošiūnė, OECD)
- • Measuring the Impact of Supply Chain Disruptions on SMEs (Houssaine Ouljour, Morocco)
11:30 am - 12:00 pm
Session 15. Cross cutting issues part 3: Central Resources Hub
The session will discuss the centralization of available manuals/compilation notes/country practices on business and trade statistics.
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
Session 16. Open discussion on the work alignment with relevant city groups
Following the request from the UNSC to further align the work of the Committee with the relevant city groups, this session would explore possibilities and options in work alignment.
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Lunch
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Session 17. Way forward, round table discussion and Closing
This session will summarize the discussion of the committee, followed by the roundtable discussion.
- • UNCEBTS Chair
- • UNSD
- • AUC
