Workshop on Classification in the ESCWA Region Beirut, Lebanon, July 2004 Jordan experience in the work with the economic and social classifications Abdelwadoud Matouk Director of Economic Surveys

Introduction  Jordan has a central statistical system located at the Department of Statistics (DoS).  DoS is responsible for conducting population, economic and agricultural censuses.  DoS conducts periodical surveys in the social, economic and agricultural fields on the national level.  DoS also prepares the external trade ststistics and calculates the GDP through the National Account Division.

 DoS gathers and tabulates statistical data from other Public Institutions and Disseminates it in the Annual Statistical Yearbook.  The new law of DoS issued in 2003, allowed other public or private institutions to carry out surveys after getting the permission of DoS to make sure that such data does not exist. The new law also permitted DoS to supply data users with the raw data for further analysis as long as it doesn’t refer to the identity of the establishment.  DoS is the leading national institution in using and applying International Classifications in Jordan.

Economic Surveys Conducted by DoS  Establishments Census 1999 / ISIC3 (6 digits)  Industrial Survey  Services Survey  Internal Trade Survey  Transportation, Storage and Communications Survey  Construction Survey  Financial and Insurance Survey ISIC3 (4 digits) & CPC1 (7 digits)

 Employment Survey ISIC3 (4 digits), ISCO-88, ISCED-97  External Trade HS Code  Un-Employment Survey (Household Survey) ISIC3 (4 digits), ISCO-88, ISCED-97

Some Other Agencies Using International Classifications  Ministry of Industry & Trade  Sales Tax Department  Income Tax Department  Social Security Institution

Shortcomings in the Coordination Among Other Agencies  Comprehensiveness of frame  Inaccurate coding  Differences on the 6 digit Level of ISIC  Data Base updating problems (MoIT)

What has been Done?  Issuing a unique national number for each establishment.  Coordination with other institutions to unify the ISIC codes.  AL-Manar Project / Canadian Project with the National Center for Human Resources Development in Jordan.

AL-Manar Project  A committee representing concerned institutions was formed ( two members from DoS).  Institutions represented were: - National Center for Human Resources Development - DoS - Social Security Institution - Civil Service Bureau - Ministry of Labor - Ministry of Higher Education

The committee also asked assistance from other institutions such as the Ministry of Interior and the Occupation Training Institution by adding a representative when needed.  The committee revised three International Classifications and one local classification - ISIC3 - ISCED-97 - ISCO-88 - Geographical Code for Localities (GCL)

 The output of the committee was: - A (7 digit) classification of the ISCO-88, where the seventh digit represented the degree of skill ranging from ( 1 to 5 ). - A (6 digit) classification of the ISCED-97, where the first digit represented the level of education ranging from ( 1 to 6 ).

- A ( 6 digit ) classification of the ISIC 3.1, where it was revised from another specialized committee and is expected to be printed within a couple of weeks. - The Jordanian ISCO and the ISCED were revised and verified by the ILO and the UNESCO and found that they correspond with the international classification.

Central Product Classification CPC and the new UNSD Industrial Commodity List  DoS has started using CPC1 in coding the inputs and the outputs in  The CPC used was on the 7 digit level which was prepared by DoS.  The 7 digit level was prepared to build the Supply and Use tables.  The Supply and Use tables were not prepared until now.

DoS Experience in Coding the Industrial Commodities Using CPC  Coding the products was not so accurate on the seven digit, therefore the estimates for the quantities and values of the products were not accurate as well due to the following reasons:  Quantities were difficult to collect from the establishments, specially the small ones.  The big establishments provides DoS with their annual report which is mainly in monetary terms.

 Dos started implementing the 93 SNA in 1999 which added lots of details to the questionnaires and made them bigger.  The bigger questionnaire imposed extra burden on the respondents and increased the non-response percentage.  Some of the establishments which produce more than one product usually reports them collectively such as plastic products or bakery products..etc.

 Regardless of that, some commodities can be well estimated such as Cement, phosphate, Marble, Granite..etc. (see the marked UNSD Industrial Commodity List).  Data collected about the above mentioned commodities are in terms of value only.

Comments on the proposed new UNSDICL  There are no comments on the items in the commodity list taking into consideration that some commodities are not applicable in Jordan.  There are no comments on the measuring units of the the commodities.  Taking into consideration the problems mentioned about estimating the quantities and values for detailed commodities, DoS can still provide good estimates for about 100 commodities out of the list.