Methodology
City Groups Ulaanbaatar Group
Ulaanbaatar Group on Statistics for Economies Based on Natural Resources
Purpose
The group intends to:
(a) play a leading role in developing methodological and practical guidelines and recommendations by pooling best theoretical and methodological practices, in order to rationally track mining industry activities and accurately measure the industry's contribution to the economy and its impact on other social sectors and the environment;
(b) serve as a forum for sharing the expertise of national and international statistical organizations and other interested parties;
(c) collaborate with the United Nations and the specialized agencies on developing and improving statistical methodologies and standards for statistics on natural resources and provide support in this area;
(d) develop practical manuals and recommendations based on best practices that ensure coverage, reliability, accuracy and relevance of statistical data to support the efforts made by countries with large mining sectors and use the international standards to guide our work.
Year organized
2012
Point of contact
Ulaanbaatar Group Secretariat:
Mr. Paul Roberts
Acting Program Manager
National Accounts Branch
Macroeconomic Statistics Division
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Ms. M.Ganchimeg
Director of Foreign Relations and Cooperation Division
Ms. D.Oyunbileg
Senior Statistician of Business Registry Section
Mr. G.Otgonbayar
Referent of Foreign Relations and Cooperation Division
National Statistics Office of Mongolia
E-mail : ubcitygroup@nso.mn, international@nso.mn
Web site: http://web.nso.mn/ub_city_group/
Telephone: 976-51-329125
Telephone: 976-51-261530
Fax: 976-11-324518
Participants
Representatives of national statistical offices, governmental organizations and international organizations have participated in the first meeting.
Current country representatives include: Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mexico, Mongolia, Russian Federation and Vietnam.
Current governmental organizations include: National Registration and Statistics Office of Mongolia, Parliament of Mongolia, Ministry of Finance of Mongolia, Bank of Mongolia, National Development and Innovation Committee of Mongolia
Current international organizations include: UNIDO, UNDP, UNESCAP, CISSTAT and IMF.
Meetings
Steering Committee Meetings:
The First Steering Committee Meeting: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 20-22 August, 2012.
Objectives of the meeting: Discuss the terms of reference and topics for the work programme. Establish a Steering Committee as well as Expert Group to manage and conduct the work programme. Decide the UB Group would hold face-to-face meetings and an electronic discussion forum to advance the work programme.
The Second Steering Committee Meeting: Moscow, Russian Federation, 17-18 September, 2013.
Objectives of the meeting: Develop a harmonized system of standard indicators for data collection. Assess the impact of the mining industry on economies and develop methodological and practical recommendations on how to demonstrate the impact through official statistics. Develop methodologies and indicators for assessing the impact of mining industry on the social sector. Develop practical recommendations for measuring the impact of the mining industry on the environment.
The Third Steering Committee Meetings: Vienna, Austria, 6-8 August, 2014.
Objectives of the meetings: Discuss the processing as a basis of the handbook and work plan for 2014. Support UBCG's initiative of creating experts' pool and discuss and exchange knowledge and experience on methodology and country cases. Set out outline for the manual and make decisions on the work plan and preparation of report for UNSC in 2015.
The Fourth Steering Committee Meetings: Sydney, Australia, 15-17 September, 2015.
Objectives of the meetings: Examine methodologies to measure the impact of mining on the economy, society, and the environment. During meeting, discussion is made on the drafted handbook chapters and a glossary for the handbook which are developed by number of member countries and international organizations.
The Fifth Steering Committee Meetings: to be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, September, 2016.
The Expanded Meetings:
Expanded Meeting of Ulaanbaatar City Group was organized as side event of the 45th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission on Monday the 3 of March, 2014, 06:15-07:15 pm, United Nations, in New-York.
Objectives of the meeting: To present the activities carried out in 2013 and work plan for 2014, discuss and make decisions on issues related to a handbook development and UBCG report to be presented at the 46th session of UNSC.
Expanded Meeting: As side event of the 44th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission on Monday the 25 of February, 2013, 06:15-07:00 pm at the Temporary North Lawn Building, United Nations, in New-York.
Objectives of the meeting: To present the goals, work streams, structure and composition of the Ulaanbaatar Group to national statistical offices and international organizations and to discuss its work plan for 2013 and collect comments, inputs, and support from the participants.
Expert Group Meetings/ Video Conferences:
The first video conference: 20 June, 2013
The second video conference: 25 December, 2013
Participants: Australia, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Russian Federation and UNIDO, UNESCAP and CISSTAT.
Objectives of the video conference: Discussed some of the work that they have been doing in relation to natural resources, the measurement of subsoil assets, the indicator work and the forward work requiring an establishment of priorities for the indicators
The third video conference: 04 February, 2014
Participants: Australia, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Russian Federation and UNIDO, UNESCAP and CISSTAT.
Objectives of the video conference: Presented work of Mongolia as well as planned future work. Discussed what indicators are not being estimated and problems to actually estimate these. Future work was discussed with a case study visit to one of the major mines. Presented the experience of Mexico, for both employment and environment data. Discussed measuring jobs versus employees and work on detail definitions for Natural Resource, focussing on specific classifications.
The fourth video conference: 03 April, 2014
Participants: Australia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Russian Federation and UNIDO, UNESCAP.
Objectives of the video conference: Presented the report of expanded meeting of UBCG during the 46th session of UNSC. Discussion on natural resource and its statistics. A paper on natural resources was presented to the group to obtain agreement that the UBCG will adopt the SEEA definitions and classifications. Mining statistics in Mexico were discussed and that some of this work needs to be incorporated into the Group's handbook.
The fifth video conference: 20 May, 2014
Participants: Australia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Russian Federation and UNIDO.
Objectives of the video conference: Discussed country's progress and to discuss structure of third steering committee meeting at Vienna. A number of presentations were made by Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Mexico. Main outcomes were to propose an agenda for the Vienna meeting.
The sixth video conference: 01 July, 2014
Participants: Australia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Russian Federation, UNIDO and UNESCAP.
Objectives of the video conference: Finalized the Vienna meeting agenda. In addition, it was also raised that the UBCG should contact other UN city groups, especially the London and Oslo groups.
The seventh video conference: 09 September, 2014
Participants: Australia, India, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Mongolia, Vietnam, UNIDO and UNESCAP.
Objectives of the video conference: Presented outcomes of the Vienna meeting and to complete the selection of the chapters of handbook Concerns were raised that there appeared to be a significant amount of work in the area of Natural Resource statistics occurring in the wider community that the UBCG was not aware of. It was discussed at the meeting that the group should attempt to raise the profile of the group through appropriate contact.
The eighth video conference: 29 October, 2014
Participants: Australia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Vietnam, IMF and UNIDO.
Objectives of the video conference: Presented the UBCG report for UNSC and discussion made to mention in the report that drafting of the manual had started. It also presented that the best practices for International Manuals that would be worth to follow. There was also discussion of the contents of Chapter 2.
The ninth video conference: 31 March, 2015
Participants: Australia, Kazakhstan, Iran, India, Mexico, Mongolia, Vietnam, IMF, UNESCAP and UNIDO.
Objectives of the video conference: Presented the feedback on the UBCG report for the 46th UNSD meeting. Noted that the UBCG handbook is to be discussed at the 47th meeting. Discussed that the timeline for members to deliver chapters, establishing the correct responsibilities for members, the dates for the next Steering Committee conference in Sydney. Discussions were held around how we might tie this in with the timeline mentioned above. It was also raised about standardising terminology and the glossary that was discussed at the Vienna meeting.
Handbook: 2015 - 2016
- The Statistical Commission endorsed the Handbook on Statistics for Economies Based on Natural Resources in its 49th session (2018), the handbook is available at http://web.nso.mn/ub_city_group/
Reporting to the UN Statistical Commission:
The Statistical Commission at its 49th session acknowledged that the Group had completed its original work assignment, but noted that there is a larger area of work related to natural resources that should be addressed, and requested the Bureau to consult with stakeholders to decide on the most appropriate work arrangements.
Last updated 11 May 2018