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Proceedings of the 12th International
Roundtable on Business Survey frames
Introduction
Documentation
Opening speech of Mr Timo Relander, Director General
Remarks of the meeting
Future work of the Roundtable
Agenda of the meeting
Participants
Introduction
The International Roundtable on Business Survey Frames was established in 1986 among statistical agencies with mutual interests in development the quality of business surveys and business frames and in the definition and classification of business units. There have been topics like globalisation, business demography, small businesses, technology trends, use of administrative data, use of business registers as well as integration and comparison of business statistics within and across countries.
The Roundtable is an informal body and participation is on voluntary basis. Participants are expected to contribute to the subjects of the meeting. The first meeting and the 10th anniversary meeting were hosted by Statistics Canada. The Roundtable meetings have been held annually and participating statistical offices have volunteered to host the conference and take care of the necessary organisational work.
The following statistical agencies have hosted the Roundtable:
19861stStatistics CanadaOttawa
1987 2ndUS Bureau of Labour Statistics Washington
19883rdNZ Department of StatisticsAuckland
19894thUK Business Statistics OfficeNewport
19905thUS Bureau of the Census Williamsburg
19916thAustralian Bureau of Statistics Coolangatta
19927thStatistics DenmarkCopenhagen
19948thNetherlands Bureau of StatisticsHeerlen
19959thStatistics Sweden Örebro
199610th Statistics CanadaQuebec
199711th Statistics Bureau of Japan Tokyo
199812th Statistics Finland Helsinki
Documentation
Concerning the meetings 1 - 9 each hosting country produced a paper publication containing the proceedings of the meeting, documents discussed and index of them. Statistics Canada then collected them, scanned them all, and produced a CD of the documents of the first nine Roundtables.
From the 10th conference on, the Roundtable documents have been in the electronic form. The documents have been delivered via email and the hosting countries have also maintained the Roundtable web site, where all the contributing documents and other relevant information of each meeting have been available.
Statistics Finland now produces the second RoundtableCD, which contains all the documents of the Roundtable meetings 1 - 12.
The address of the Roundtable web site of the 12th meeting is: The address will be open until the next host takes the responsibility of communication.
Opening speech of Mr Timo Relander, Director General
Ladies and gentlemen!
It is a pleasure for me to welcome you to the Meeting of the 12th International Round Table on Business Survey Frames.
We in Finland consider the work of this group, and the work of other so called city groups, very important in the exchanging of experiences as well as in the testing and developing of new ideas. These meetings are also essential to the efforts that are made to create acceptable and lasting common standards for the improvement of international comparability.
Finland has participated in the Roundtable forum for seven years. During these years we have enjoyed the hospitality of many other countries. This time it is our privilege to host the meeting and I would like to express our thanks for the trust which has been placed upon us. I hope that the arrangements for the meeting will be to your satisfaction.
1
In a growing number of countries statistics production relies on basic registers, in which statistical units are exhaustively recorded. We have been developing this model of production for over thirty years with our colleagues from the other Nordic Countries.
It is also getting increasingly common that wherever possible administrative data are used instead of direct data collection from individuals and businesses.
As you will hear and see on Finland's day, on Wednesday, we have achieved a remarkable success in both of these fields.
Our most prominent achievement is, of course, a population census carried out without any additional data collection, that is, without paper forms. All the necessary data are obtained from regular, yearly statistical surveys. Practically speaking 100 per cent of the data in those surveys are obtained from administrative data files. In fact, we could carry out a population census every year if necessary.
The 1995 population census cost us about 1.2 million US dollars. About 70 per cent of that money was obtained from the users of these statistics, mainly municipalities.
Comparing this cost to the last census we carried out in 1980 using paper forms, and taking inflation into account, the cost of the 1995 census was only about 5 per cent of that of the 1980 census.
In addition to the population census and other population statistics, good examples of use of administrative sources are also our statistics on
- crime and justice,
- road traffic accidents,
- elections,
- income,
- housing, and
- housing construction
Over the last few years we have also made significant progress in the use of administrative data in business statistics. Examples of recent advancements include waste statistics, structural business statistics and short term business statistics.
Altogether, the share of administrative data of all our data collection is well over 90 per cent.
Of course, it must be said that Finnish statisticians are in an enviable position in this respect when compared internationally. Our society accepts the use of general and uniform identifiers in administration. Moreover, it accepts the use of administrative data in statistics production, and it allows the combining of various data files for statistics when necessary. Our Statistics Act even obliges us to do this. This is in contrast to some other countries where statistical legislation forbids the use of administrative data in statistics production.
Moreover, we can be pleased about the fact that the information technology infrastructure in Finnish administration is so well developed.
In fact, our society insists that we exploit data once collected for administrative purposes, instead of collecting the same data again from individuals or businesses.
Behind this demand are, of course, concerns about growing costs and the response burden. These same concerns have also started to influence thinking in the international statistical community. This can be seen in, among other things, the latest statistical regulations of the European Union.
2
Business survey frame, or in plain language Business Register, is one of the cornerstones of an advanced statistical service.
A Business Register is needed for defining the business population, identifying different business units as well as recording certain basic characteristics describing the business units. It plays an especially important role in providing classification data for all those statistics where business is the subject matter.
The history of the Finnish Business Register is fairly long. It started with the 1953 and 1964 business censuses, and has continued with a regularly updated Business Register since the beginning of 1970s. Over the past quarter of a century the register's contents, compilation methods, data updating sources and coverage have developed enormously.
For some years now, our register has covered all business enterprises and their establishments. In addition, other economic units, which act as employers, such as central and local government authorities, are also registered.
We have just this summer concluded our latest Business Register redesign project. Its aim was to meet the present demands on register quality and service capacity as well as to introduce state-of-art technology. This project was one of the biggest Statistics Finland has undertaken the last few years. It lasted for over 3 years, took about 25 manyears and cost nearly 2 million US dollars.
3
The Business Register of Statistics Finland has a special status which is worth mentioning. In connection with the business register proper, an official register of organisation numbers is also maintained. Anybody needing identification data can obtain them from this register. Some examples of our customers are insurance companies and businesses engaged in direct marketing.
Another special feature is that, within strictly defined limits, the information in the business register can be made public and individual, identifiable data can be released to our customers. This is an exception in our Statistics Act which otherwise decrees strict confidentiality of individual data.
4
Looking through the agenda of this meeting I can see that you will be discussing many topical questions. As perhaps the best example, let me mention globalisation, which is one of the major challenges to economic statistics. It is good to see that this phenomenon is also being scrutinised at the basic register level abd that solutions for describing it are being co-operatively sought. In the same way the themes of business demography, business register standards and technology are important and essential to the quality and international comparability of Business Registers.
5
I wish you a successful meeting. I am sure that you will work hard and efficiently to complete your agenda. I wish you good co-operation and good results in questions relating to the theory and methods of Business Registers' maintenance. This will be for the benefit of both national and international statistical communities.
I wish all delegates of this meeting an enjoyable time in Finland. I hope that our northern country can offer to all our guests - whether from countries far away or just next door - pleasant and memorable and, hopefully even some unique, experiences.
To close up, I wish you all welcome to Statistics Finland this evening. We will try to offer you one unique experience - the Finnish sauna. In our office building we have 5 saunas and it is a rare guest who is let off without making acquaintance with at least one of them!
Remarks of the meeting
The 12th Roundtable meeting was held in Finland from Monday, 28 September until Friday, 2 October in Hotel Inter-Continental, Helsinki.
Total of eight sessions were held during five busy working days. The sessions were organised and chaired by responsible session leaders. The following topics were discussed:
Session 1 Progress Reports
chaired by Mr. Ilkka Hyppönen, Statistics Finland
Session 2Technology
chaired by Mr. Ian Ewing, Statistics New Zealand
Session 3Globalisation
chaired by Mr. Richard Barnabe, Statistics Canada
Session 4 Finland's day
chaired by Mr. Ilkka Hyppönen, Statistics Finland
Session 5Business Demography
chaired by Mr. Michael Prestwood, ONS United Kingdoom
Session 6 Business Register Standards
chaired by Mr. Sven Egmose, Statistics Denmark
Session 7Special Topics
chaired by Mr. Jean Ritzen, Statistics Netherlands
Session 8 Future
chaired by Mr. Hugues Picard, INSEE France
Each session leader has reported the outcome of their sessions. In the CD these proceedings are annexed by the papers of each session originally presented in the meeting (except session 4).
In the session 4, Finland's day, Statistics Finland presented the achievements of Register based statistics production also in the field of register-based Census statistics as well as applied to the production of short term business statistics. The TeemaCD, the application of regional statistics on maps was also presented and demonstrated.
As social program of the meeting week Statistics Finland had arranged some occasions for participants of the meeting and their accompanying persons. In Monday evening the quests were invited to the statistical office for buffet dinner. The organisation and activities of Statistics Finland were presented to them. The sauna was also available for the quests and the great majority of male visitors but only one female of them dared to try the hot stones of the sauna.
The official dinner was hosted by Director General, Mr Timo Relander in the Restaurant Sipuli and it was invited in Thursday evening. Wednesday afternoon was allowed for tourism and the group was taken to the cruise in the archipelago off Helsinki in the Gulf of Finland and to visit to the historical and cultural sea fortress of Suomenlinna. The fortress of Suomenlinna included in the Unesco list of World heritage sites was celebrating its 250th anniversary in 1998.
Future work
The next meetings will be held in France (1999), New Zealand (2000) and USA (2001). Mr Picard (INSEE, France) invited the next Roundtable meeting to France and informed that the meeting will take place in Paris from 27 September to 1 October, 1999.
The agenda and topics of the 13th Roundtable meeting were discussed in the closing session of 12th Roundtable meeting. The following topics and session leaders were agreed
- Progress ReportsFrance
- Quality of Business RegisterNetherlands
- Business Demography Denmark
- Technology US (NASS)
- Globalisation Canada
Volunteering contributors were also asked and preliminarily reported. The more accurate plan for the 13th meeting is reported in the Proceedings of the respective session.
Mr Hyppönen (Statistics Finland) then closed the 12th Roundtable meeting and thanked the participants for their good contribution and active co-operation in the meeting and wished success to the Roundtable group in its future work.
Agenda of the meeting
Sunday, September 27, 1998
15.00Registration
18.00Cocktails
19.30Meeting for the chairs of Sessions
Monday, September 28, 1998
9.00Opening of the 12th Roundtable meeting
9.15Progress reports (session 1, papers 1 - 6)
10.30Coffee break
10.40Progress reports (session 1, papers 7 - 12)
12.00Photography
12.15Lunch
13.30Progress reports (session 1, papers 13 - 18)
15.00Coffee break
15.15Technology (session 2, part 1)
17.00End of the session
17.30Transportation: Inter-Continental - Presidentti - StatFin
18.00Presentation of Statistics Finland and Buffet Dinner (at StatFin)
22.00Transportation: StatFin - Presidentti - Inter-Continental
Tuesday, September 29, 1998
9.00Technology (session 2, part 2)
10.30Coffee break
10.40Globalisation (session 3, part 1)
12.00Lunch
13.30Globalisation (session 3, part 2)
15.00Coffee break
15.15Globalisation (session 3, part 3)
17.00End of the session
Wednesday, September 30, 1998
9.00Finland's day (session 4, part 1):
- Register Based Statistics Production
- Theme CD
10.30Coffee break
10.40Finland's day (session 4, part 2):
-Register Based Production of Business Statistics
11.30Lunch
13.00Transportation from Inter-Continental
T O U R I S M
17.30Transportation at Inter-Continental
Thursday, October 1, 1998
9.00Business Demography (session 5, part 1)
10.30Coffee break
10.40Business Demography (session 5, part 2)
12.00Lunch
13.30Business Register Standards (session 6, part 1)
15.00Coffee Break
15.15Business Register Standards (session 6, part 2)
17.00End of the session
19.00Transportation: Inter-Continental - Presidentti - Restaurant Sipuli
19.30Dinner hosted by Director General of StatFin
Friday, October 2, 1998
9.00Special Topics (session 7)
10.30Coffee break
10.40Future (session 8)
12.00Lunch
D E P A R T U R E
Participants
Canada
Richard Barnabé
Statistics Canada
Tunneys Pasture
Jean Talon Building 13th Floor Section B-7
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
e-mail:
tel. + 1 613 951 9850
fax. + 1 613 951 0411
Terry Evers
Statistics Canada
Tunneys Pasture, Jean Talon Building 8 A 1
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
e-mail:
tel. + 1 613 951 1270
fax. + 1 613 951 0104
Denmark
Sven Egmose
Statistics Denmark
Sejrogade 11
2100 Kobenhavn O
Denmark
e-mail:
tel. + 45 3917 3141
fax. + 45 3917 3999
Morgens Damgaard Larsen
Statistics Denmark
Sejrogade 11
2100 Kobenhavn O
Denmark
e-mail:
tel. + 45 39173877
fax. + 45 39173999
Eurostat
Arto Luhtio
Eurostat
Batiment Jean Monet C5/4
L-2920 Luxembourg
e-mail:
tel. + 352 43013 4466
fax. +352 4301 32600
Francois de Geuser
Eurostat
Batiment Jean Monet C5/56
L-2920 Luxembourg
e-mail:
tel. +352 4301 33220
fax. +352 4301 33899
Finland
Ilkka Hyppönen
Statistics Finland
FIN-00022 Statistics Finland
Helsinki, Finland
e-mail:
tel. +358 9 1734 2408
fax. +358 9 1734 2635
Hannu Kröger
Statistics Finland
FIN-00022 Statistics Finland
Helsinki, Finland
e-mail:
tel. +358 9 1734 3499
fax. +358 9 1734 3554
Minna Tuppurainen
VTT Group for Technology Studies
P.O. Box 1002
FIN-02044 VTT
Finland
e-mail:
tel. +358 9 456 4249
fax. +358 9 456 7007
Tuula Viitaharju
Statistics Finland
FIN-00022 Statistics Finland
Helsinki, Finland
e-mail:
tel. +358 9 1734 3378
fax. +358 9 1734 3554
France
Marie-France Bobin
INSEE
Timbre E 110, 18, Boulevard Adolphe Pinard
75675 Paris Cedex 14
France
e-mail:
tel. + 33 1 41175073
fax. + 33 1 41176327
Jean-Pierre Grandjean
INSEE
Timbre E 201, 18. Boulevard Adolphe Pinard
75675 Paris Cedex 14
France
e-mail:
tel. + 33 1 41176537
fax. + 33 1 41176520
Hugues Picard
INSEE
Timbre E101. 18, Boulevard Adolphe Pinard
75675 Paris Cedex 14
France
e-mail:
tel. + 33 1 41175063
fax. + 33 1 41176327
Germany
Heinz Schemmel
Statistisches Bundesamt
Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 11
D-65180 Wiesbaden
Germany
e-mail:
tel. + 49 61175 2877
fax. + 49 611 724000
Hungary
Peter Pukli
Hungarian Central Statistical Office
Keleti K. u. 5-7, Box 51
H-1024 Budapest
Hungary
e-mail:
tel. + 36 1 2124892
fax. + 36 1 2020806
Italy
Giovanni Barbieri
ISTAT
Via Tuscolana 1788
I-00100 Roma
Italy
e-mail:
tel. + 39 6 72976237
fax. +39 6 7213828
Giuseppe Garofalo
ISTAT
Via Tuscolana 1788
I-00100 Roma
Italy
e-mail:
tel. + 39 6 72900905
fax. + 39 6 7213825
Caterina Viviano
ISTAT
Via Tuscolana 1788
I-00100 Roma
Italy
e-mail:
tel. + 39 6 721 9021
fax. + 39 6 721 3825
Japan
Masao Takahashi
Statistics Bureau, Management and Coordination Agency
19-1 Wakamatsu-cho, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 162-8668
Japan
e-mail:
tel. + 81 3 5273 1116
fax. + 81 3 5273 1180
The Netherlands
Jean Ritzen
Statistics Netherlands
P.O. Box 4481
6401 CZ Heerlen
The Netherlands
e-mail:
tel. +31 45 570 6860
fax. + 31 45 570 6266
Harrie van der Ven
Statistics Netherlands
Business Register Dept.
Room D315
P.O. Box 4481
6401 CZ Heerlen
The Netherlands
e-mail:
tel. + 31 45 5706858
fax. + 31 45 570 6276
New Zealand
Ian Ewing
Statistics New Zealand
P.O. Box 2922
Wellington
New Zealand
e-mail:
tel. + 64 4 4954844
fax. + 64 4 4954882
Portugal
Júlia Maria Cravo
INE - Instituto Nacional de Estatistica
Av. António José de Almeida
1000 - Lisboa
Portugal
e-mail:
tel. +351 1 842 6100
fax. +351 1 842 6367
Sweden
Gösta Nilsson
Statistics Sweden
Klostergatan 23
701 89 Örebro
Sweden
e-mail:
tel. + 46 19176375
fax. + 46 19176117
Björn Thornadtsson
Statistics Sweden
Klostergatan 23
701 89 Örebro
Sweden
e-mail:
tel. + 46 19 176362
fax. + 46 19 176117
United Kingdom
Michael Prestwood
Office for National Statistics
Room 1.023 Government Buildings, Cardiff Road
Newport. NPa IXG
United Kingdom
e-mail:
tel. +44 1633 813289
fax. + 44 1633 812477
USA (BOC)
Edwad D. Walker
Bureau of the Cencus
Washington, D.C. 20233
U.S.A.
e-mail:
tel. + 1 301 4572617
fax. + 1 301 4571904
USA (NASS)
Bill Iwig
National Agricultural Statistics Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave. SW, Room 4818 South Building
Washington D.C.
U.S.A.
e-mail:
tel. +1 202 720 3895
fax. +1 202 720 8738