Regional Workshop on Integrating Business and Trade Statistics
Organized jointly by UNSD and ECLAC
- Santiago, Chile
- 9 - 11 September 2025
Traditionally, business and trade statistics have been compiled and utilized separately. However, there is a growing appreciation within the international statistics community and other stakeholders for having more elements that can provide a better understanding of the linkage between production and trade in an increasingly globalized economy.
Recognizing these demands, the UN Committee of Experts on Business and Trade Statistics developed the Handbook on Integrating Business and Trade Statistics, which was endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2025. The Handbook contains guidelines for countries to produce new indicators of business and trade by linking them using proven techniques and methods. It also contains examples and national practices from countries that have done the linkage.
Within this context, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) are jointly organizing a Regional Workshop on Integrating Business and Trade Statistics. This is a 3-day workshop to be held in Santiago, Chile, from 9 to 11 September 2025. The workshop aims to raise awareness on the needs and usefulness of linking business and trade statistics, and build capacities in linking methods for integrating business statistics with international trade statistics on goods and services.
The workshop will be held in English and Spanish. Simultaneous two-way translation of Spanish to English and English to Spanish will be provided.
First day, 9 September
09:00 – 9:30
Registration
09:30 – 10:00
Opening Ceremony
- Opening remarks from the ECLAC
- Opening remarks from the UNSD
- Group photo
10:00 – 12:30
Session 1: Policy drivers for integrating business and trade statistics
- Lecture by the co-lead of the Task Team on International Trade Statistics
- This session will discuss the motivation of integrating business and trade statistics, and the importance of indicators resulting from linking business and trade statistics, as well as their usefulness in policymaking.
14:00 - 17:00
Session 2: Conceptual frameworks
- Lecture delivered by UNSD
- This session will introduce the conceptual frameworks for integrating business and trade statistics, including the main components of trade statistics and business statistics. It will be followed by country presentations on national conceptual frameworks.
Second day, 10 September
09:30 - 12:00
Session 3: Compilation Strategies
- Lecture delivered by UNSD
- This session will introduce the compilation strategies for integrating business and trade statistics, including the data sources, linking methods, and quality framework. It will be followed by country presentations on challenges in compiling indicators of linking business and trade statistics
14:00 – 16:00
Session 4: Process for linking business and trade statistics
- Lecture delivered by UNSD
- This session will go into details of process for linking business and trade statistics in goods and services statistics, with a specific focus on generating Trade by Enterprise Characteristics (TEC) statistics and Services Trade by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC) statistics. It will be followed by country presentations on business and/or trade statistics.
16:00 - 17:00
Session 5: Dissemination Strategies
- Lecture delivered by UNSD
- This session will introduce the dissemination strategies of integrated data. It will address some issues related to the confidentiality principles for disseminating the data, anonymization and level of aggregation. This will be followed by country presentations on disseminating business and/or trade statistics.
Third day, 11 September
09:30 – 12:00
Session 6: Innovation in linking business and trade statistics
- Lecture delivered by UNSD
- This session will discuss some innovative applications of integrated business and trade statistics. For example, linking to social statistics, measurement of digital economy, application in subnational statistics, and etc. Followed by country presentations on indicators of business and/or trade statistics
14:00 – 15:00
Closing Ceremony
- Round table discussion on the way forward
- Closing remarks from the ECLAC
- Closing remarks from the UNSD
