The UN Expert Group on the Compilers Guide for the Manual of Statistics of International Trade in Services (CG MSITS 2010)

The Task Force, at its meeting in March 2011, asked the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) to take the lead in developing a compilation guide for MSITS 2010. UNSD took the initiative to establish an expert group on the compilation of SITS (EG-CSITS) in cooperation with the Task Force.

The expert group consists of all Task Force members and national experts from developed and developing countries. The guide is expected to be finalised in 2013.

This page provides further information about the Expert Group on Compilation of Statistics of International Trade in Services – please do visit it regularly.

Compilers Guide for MSITS 2010 (CG MSITS 2010)

Unedited White Cover Version of the Compilers Guide for MSITS2010 is NOW AVAILABLE HERE

The work of finalizing the draft Compilers Guide for MSITS 2010 was completed in December 2014. The unedited white cover version is currently available electronically and will be officially edited in early 2015.

MSITS 2010 was a milestone in the development of the international trade in services statistics including quite a few changes in the coverage as well as including new areas of statistical work. UN Statistical Commission approved an implementation plan for MSITS 2010 based on the TFSITS report and requested support in the implementation. As a response to UNSC and TFSITS a UN Expert Group was established by UNSD to support the drafting of a compilers guide to support the implementation work in countries. The main aim of the CG MSITS 2010 to provide practical advice, good country examples and pitfalls (to be avoided) in the implementation.

1. The DRAFT version of the Compilers Guide for MSITS 2010 is available here and was replaced by the official version in December 2014. Acknowledging the strong need for guidance to be made available as soon as possible to assist in the implementation of MSITS 2010, the Expert Group agreed that the draft version of the Guide was to be submitted to the Statistical Commission at its forty-fifth session in 2014 and made available to compilers for use now, as a draft electronic document that would be finalized in a reasonable time frame after March 2014.



2. A fully edited version of the draft Guide was presented to the Task Force at its meeting in October 2013 and was discussed electronically by the Expert Group in November 2013. It was noted that there remained certain areas where the guidance was provisional, which partly reflected the need to provide examples of best practices, further develop compilation guidance, and incorporate the work of other forums (such as the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Task Force on Global Production). The Expert Group agreed to reflect the outcomes of that work in the Guide or to flag the issues requiring further action if recommendations were not forthcoming soon.



3. In June 2013, a final face-to-face meeting of the expert group was held at UNCTAD in Geneva, where the full draft compilers guide was reviewed.



4. World-wide consultation on the annotated outline of the CG MSITS 2010 May 2012
   • annotated outline (pdf - EN, RU, FR, ES, AR)
   • questionnaire (pdf - EN, RU, FR, ES, AR)
   • Summary Report (pdf)
   
   


5. The meeting of the Extended Task Force on Statistics of International Trade in Services (TFSITS):
   • 28 – 30 March 2012, New York
     1. Agenda (pdf)
     2. Summary Report of the meeting (pdf )
   • 25 -26 October 2012, Paris
     1. Agenda (pdf)
     2. Summary Report of the meeting (pdf)
   • 17- 18 April 2013, Rome
     1. Agenda (pdf)
     2. Summary Report of the meeting (pdf)
   • 16- 18 October 2013, Paris
     1. Agenda (pdf)
     2. Summary Report of the meeting (pdf)
   • The virtual meetings of the expert group ( the discussion forum is accessible by invitation at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradeserv/forum/default.aspx):
     • First Virtual Meeting: 12 - 23 March 2012: Summary Report (pdf)
     • Second Virtual Meeting: 1 - 12 October 2012: Summary Report (pdf)
     • Third Virtual Meeting: 11 - 29 March 2013 (pdf)
     • Fourth Virtual Meeting: 1 - 30 November 2013 (pdf)

World-wide Consultation on the annotated outline of the CG MSITS 2010

The national statistical offices, central banks, line ministries who are involved in compiling statistics of international trade in services were requested to comment the scope, structure and content of the detailed annotated outline of the Compilers Guide by completing the questionnaire in July 2012. Please see the annotated outline and the questionnaire sent to countries in various languages and the summary report.

1. annotated outline (pdf - EN, RU, FR, ES, AR)
2. questionnaire (pdf - EN, RU, FR, ES, AR)
3. Summary Report (pdf)