Multinational Enterprise Project Roundtable on Business Survey Frames Beijing, October 17-22, 2004

Background STC presentation at CES session on globalization in June 2003 Identify areas where more standardized and co ‑ ordinated approaches to measuring the activities of multinational enterprises could contribute to improved national and international economic statistics Explore the concept of having MNEs reporting in an integrated fashion to several NSOs

Project Structure The NSOs of 5 countries are participating in the first phase (Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands and UK) Other stakeholders – UNECE, EUROSTAT, OECD & UNCTAD Bureau of the Conference of European Statisticians Roundtable on Business Frames

Objectives of first phase Determine coherence of the national measurement of MNE’s activities (as currently done by NSOs) compared to the national segment provided by the MNE? Determine accuracy of the global measurements of MNEs?

Methodology A few MNEs selected in each country MNEs are asked to report – a selected number of variables by country and – the legal entities participating in the values reported for each country All information will be sent to the collecting NSO, then the data will be shared once waiver obtained from MNE

Variables Sales Inter-geographic segment sales Net sales (as per annual report) Net operating profit (AR) Capitalized expenditures (AR) Number of employees (AR)

Confidentiality Waiver to be signed by participating MNE General rules “Common Declaration” from National Statistics Offices Data exchange procedure

Project communication Meeting in Luxembourg One videoconference held in July and telephone

Progress to date Several MNEs were contacted and agreed to participate in the project and share their data Some MNEs have already sent their data and signed the waiver National coherence analysis has started Data sharing is about to start

Next steps Complete Phase 1 data collection Complete internal coherence analysis Process to consolidate results among participating countries