"SME Data Workshop": Cairo Sheraton Hotel January 17, 2008

SME Data Workshop
Cairo Sheraton Hotel

January 17, 2008
Workshop Report
Small and Medium Enterprise Policy (SMEPol)

Development Project
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................3
SME Data Workshop Report ......................................................................................................6
A: Opening remarks and introductions........................................................................................6
B: Workshop Session 1: The Statistics Canada SME Statistics Program.......................................7
Lessons learned from the Canadian presentation.................................................................10
C: Workshop Session 2: European Statistics on SMEs, business demography and
entrepreneurship .................................................................................................................10
Lessons learned from the EuroStat presentation .................................................................13
D: Workshop Session 3: OECD work on SME statistics: policy and indicators.........................13
Lessons learned from the OECD presentation....................................................................15
E: Concluding panel session:.....................................................................................................15
Closing remarks ........................................................................................................................17
Annex 1: Agenda.......................................................................................................................18
Annex 2: List of participants .....................................................................................................20
Annex 3: International presenters..............................................................................................22
Annex 4: SME Statistics Program, Statistics Canada (PPT)........................................................23
Annex 5: European Statistics on SMEs, business demography and entrepreneurship (PPT)......27
Annex 6: OECD Work on SME Statistics: Policy and Indicators (PPT) ....................................37
Executive Summary
The major objective of the SME Data Workshop was to follow-up on the Roundtable on Micro,
Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Data & Indicators, hosted by the SMEPol Project on
September 26, 2007, by offering technical assistance from international experts on how to deal
with the challenges of developing a MSME data system.
It was attended by over 30 officials representing CAPMAS, the Ministry of Trade and Industry,
the Ministry of Investment, the General Authority for Investment (GAFI), the Ministry of
Finance, the National Authority for Social Insurance, the Information and Decision Support
Centre (IDSC), the Social Fund for Development (SFD), the Egyptian Center for Economic
Studies (ECES), the Delegation of the European Commission in Egypt, the SMEPol Unit, and
members of the Press. The participant list is attached at Annex 2.
The program consisted of three one-hour workshop sessions led by international experts from
the Small Business & Special Surveys Directorate of Statistics Canada, the Structural Business
Statistics Section of EuroStat, and the OECD Statistics Directorate. A discussion period
followed each session. Issues discussed included the need for: internationally consistent
employment size breakdowns for reporting SME data; a Business Register to be held by the
National Statistical Office; linking of administrative data to the Business Register; identification
of a small number of key statistical variables to measure the SME sector; use of a unique
identifier number for each enterprise, consistently applied across ministries; and consultation
with key stakeholders and users on the design of a SME Statistics Program. International exports
also informed workshop participants about current data initiatives underway in the OECD and
EuroStat related to business demography and entrepreneurship indicators and indicated how
Egypt as a country could become directly involved.
Overall lessons learned from the international experts include:
Statistics Canada:
Policy demand is the driver behind the SME Statistics Program.

The SME definition for statistical purposes should be based on (at least) employment
category breakdowns that are consistent with international standards.
The base for the SME Statistics Program is the Business Register.
Timely and quality data on SMEs is generated by linking administrative files (taxation,
payroll) with the Business Register data.
It is important to have a unique identifier for each enterprise.
Key variables such as sector, employment, revenue, and age of enterprise are sufficient to
start building a SME Statistics Program.
The size of the informal economy can be estimated through sample surveys in selected
regions of the country and by using proxy indicators.
Egypt should start by developing baseline measures for the formal economy (track what
can be tracked) and progress in a step-by-step fashion.
Key stakeholders and data users should be consulted in the process of designing a SME
Statistics Program.
EuroStat
High policy demand is the driver behind the EuroStat project on Business Demography
policymakers seek more information on business births and deaths as indicators for
innovation and entrepreneurship.
The most critical thing to be done to improve SME data is building a Business Register.
The Business Register should be held by the National Statistical Office.
The National Statistical Office should be the body responsible for harmonizing SMErelated data across administrative units.
A simple business identifier number should be implemented and applied consistently
across ministries.
The SME definition for statistical purposes should be consistent with international
standards in terms of employment size category breakdowns.
Sampling surveys and censuses are an inefficient and costly alternative to collecting data
on SMEs; a Business Register is much more efficient, less burdensome for SMEs and can
be updated regularly, thus providing more timely policy input.
Egypt could participate in the OECD-EuroStat Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme
upon official request.
OECD
The National Statistical Office should be the coordinator and collector of SME data with
full access to administrative data held by other ministries.
A common identifier should be used for each enterprise.
Countries should use coherent and internationally consistent size classes for reporting on
SME data.
The Business Register is the key to managing complex statistical systems and a precondition for understanding the SME sector.
Useful statistics can be obtained by linking the Business Register with the Trade Register.
Egypt can learn useful lessons from other countries that have integrated their business
registers, such as Germany and the Netherlands.
Egypt could participate in the next meeting of the International Working Group on
Business Registers taking place November 22-24, 2008, by extending a formal request to
the OECD.
Egypt could also officially request Observer Status in the OECD and thus benefit from
all SME statistical work being done by the OECD.
The workshop concluded that Egypt needs more consistent survey data on both the formal and
informal enterprise sectors, including work to develop proxy indicators for the informal sector. It
was agreed that current surveys are only a partial solution to Egypts SME data and information
needs. It was noted that Egypt has a jungle of laws and regulations governing statistics and
that these statistical laws need to be streamlined to be in line with the systematic statistical
systems in Canada and the European countries. Participants agreed that Egypt needs an
integrated statistical/ data system on MSMEs and that a procedure needs to be laid out for
developing this.
Participants recommended that Egypt start with sorting out data issues for the formal sector,
where more data is available, and develop good reporting. This would at least help advance the
Egyptian knowledge base about formal SMEs. Then the informal sector data issues could be
tackled over time. It was proposed that a data initiative start with developing a very good
database using data on employees and employers. This might produce a 70 percent complete
database that could be developed from there.
The Ministry of Finance/ SME Unit urged that ministries have to cooperate with each other in
the collecting of data and the sharing of data across and between ministries. It was proposed that
the Tax Authority agree to the necessary approach to integrate the tax data files and that the
Social Fund for Development link its work on data collection with other ministries expertise.
The SME Unit will recommend to the Minister of Finance that a Committee be formed to
initiate a response to recommendations and suggestions arising from the workshop.
SME Data Workshop Report

The major objective of the workshop was to follow-up on the Roundtable on Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprise (MSME) Data & Indicators, hosted by the SMEPol Project on September
26, 2007, by offering technical assistance from international experts on how to deal with the
challenges of developing a MSME data system. The workshop agenda is attached as Annex 1.
It was attended by 30 officials representing CAPMAS, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the
Ministry of Investment, the General Authority for Investment (GAFI), the Ministry of Finance,
the Tax Authority, the Social Insurance Fund, the Information and Decision Support Centre
(IDSC), the Social Fund for Development (SFD), the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies
(ECES), the Delegation of the European Commission in Egypt, the SMEPol Unit, and members
of the Press. The participant list is attached at Annex 2.
International experts leading the three workshop sessions were:
Workshop Session 1: Mr. Terry Evers, Director of Small Business and Special Surveys
Division (SBSSD), Statistics Canada
Workshop Session 2: Dr. Axel Behrens, Head of the Development and Analysis Section of
Structural Business Statistics (SBS), European Commission (and EuroStat)
Workshop Session 3: Andreas Lindner, Head of the Trade and Globalisation Statistics
Section, OECD Statistics Directorate, OECD
A: Opening remarks and introductions

10:00 10:15 Mr. Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Manager, SME Unit, Ministry of Finance and Ms.
Lois Stevenson, SME Specialist, International Development Research Centre and
SMEPol Project Coordinator
Mr. Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Manager of the Ministry of Finance SME Unit opened the session
and reiterated the objectives for the workshop. Ms. Lois stressed how important good SME data
is to proper policy formulation, reporting that according to regional analysis being completed by
IDRC, much of the MENA Region is facing many of the same data and statistical challenges as
Egypt. The workshop is intended to support the Egyptian government in dealing with some of
these challenges.
10:15 10:45 Recap and confirmation of the major SME data and statistical challenges in
Egypt identified at September 26, 2007 Roundtable.
Ms. Lois Stevenson briefly recapped the major SME data and statistical challenges in Egypt
based on the outcome of the September 26, 2007 Roundtable on MSME Data & Indicators (and
reported in the Summary of Discussions & Conclusions Report available at: www.sme.gov.eg).
She asked Workshop participants to briefly introduce themselves, followed by brief
introductions by the three international experts. Bio-sketches for each of the speakers are
attached as Annex 3.
Mr. Terry Evers, Statistics Canada explained that his unit has a Cdn$7 million program working
on wage rates and compensation data and SME surveys. There are two recurring surveys: one on
the demand for financing, and a tri-annual survey measuring the costs of regulatory compliance
for SMEs. His unit publishes a series of Small Business Profiles and a Market Research
Handbook. StatsCan has been interested in a SME Statistics Program for a number of years, but
in the past two to three years, has made significant progress. At the workshop, he will share the
challenges StatsCan encountered in building the program and how they overcame these
obstacles. He stated that users of StatsCan data need information and statistics and StatsCan has
a responsibility to give them the data they need.
Dr. Axel Behrens, EuroStat, explained that EuroStat provides official statistics to inform policies
of the European Commission as well as regional policies. EuroStat does not do surveys or collect
data from enterprises it collects data from national statistical agencies and harmonizes and
publishes the data. He will talk about data they have available on SMEs, their new program on
business demography, and new projects, such as the Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme.
Mr. Andreas Lindner, OECD, stated that work on SMEs has really only started since 2004 with
the OECD meeting in Istanbul where a dedicated policy session with 55 countries led to a
number of initiatives on SME data to address policy issues. He explained that the OECD is an
international organization with 30 member countries, functioning as a think-tank with several
Directorates, e.g. Trade, Agriculture, etc. In his work, everything starts with data. This data is
discussed and leads to recommendations to governments. In his presentation, he will focus on
the OECDs work on SMEs, share findings from the Entrepreneurship Indicators Project and
the Structural Business Statistics Project, and discuss issues of compatibility between the Trade
Register and the Business Register. Lastly, he stressed the increasing importance of micro data in
the age of globalization. The need for more micro data exists and statistical agencies need to
organize better on how provide this data. He will share some case studies of how some
countries are dealing with this.
B: Workshop Session 1: The Statistics Canada SME Statistics Program

10:45 - 11:45
Workshop leader: Mr. Terry Evers, Director of Small Business and Special
Surveys Division (SBSSD), Statistics Canada
Mr. Evers presentation started with a review of the context for SME statistics in Canada. He
reported that policy areas are demanding detailed and high quality SME data to support policy
development and that inter-ministerial support exists for the development of comparable SME
data. Canada is also a partner in the OECD/ EuroStat standard demography statistics and
entrepreneurship performance indicators projects. (His presentation is attached as Annex 4).
Before the SME Statistics Program was started, there were several problems driving Canadian
reform in this area:
No standard definition for SMEs, so unable to create a comprehensive picture of SMEs

in Canada or compare this to other countries;
Lack of standard measures of SME performance to assess productivity, growth,
competitiveness, etc;
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Users did not know what data was available on SMEs or where or how to get it.
He outlined the types of challenges Canada faced in developing its SME Statistics Program and
how they overcame each one.
1. SME definition: To deal with the issue of SME definitions and to overcome the
challenge of reaching consensus on a definition (i.e. whether to use employment or

revenue), StatsCan decided to adopt standard size groups based on employment, that
were aligned with OECD and EuroStat categories: 0-4, 5-9, 10-19, 20-49, 50-99, 100-249,
and >249. StatsCan now reports all SME data by these size groups, allowing users to
define their own coverage. He suggested that there is no right or wrong answer to the
question of whether to use employment or revenue for the definition, but StatsCan
needed one that was empirically defendable and for which data was readily available.
2. Clear Program Objectives: To design the Program, they established clear Program
objectives based on producing an annual base of statistics to support policy development

(SME business demography statistics and SME performance indicators) and leveraging
existing annual administrative data. Core variables included those for which a discrete
value was known for each and every business in Canada with acceptable quality. This
would allow them to measure changes over time. They also had to reach agreement on
the unit of observation and decided it had to be the enterprise (as opposed to the
establishment) because for most SMEs, enterprise and establishment are the same thing.
He reported that of the 2.2 million Canadian enterprises, almost 60% have no employees;
25% have 1-4 employees; 7.6% have 5-9 employees; and only 8.8% have more than 10
employees.
3. Complete, timely and high-quality data for all businesses: The next major problem
was obtaining complete, timely, and high quality data for all businesses in Canada. They
resolved this by using Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administrative tax data to the
maximum (e.g. payroll remittance data for employment data; income tax forms to obtain
balance sheet and income statement data). This was facilitated by the fact that Canada
uses a unique business number for every Canadian business, allowing tracking of firms
across files.
The Program coverage is dictated by the Business Register, which includes all employer
businesses, and all non-employer businesses with at least Cdn$30,000 in sales.
Administrative data is loaded for each active business in the Business Register for each
reference year.
4. Confidentiality: The last major problem to overcome was data confidentiality. Users
wanted the most detailed breakdowns (by sector, geographic region, business size and
revenue) but in cases where there were a limited number of businesses in the subbreakdown, data could not be released for reasons of confidentiality. The solution was to
agree on a number of standard annual outputs that would be made freely available to all
users (and without costs). Never is individual information for a company released to the
public.
The SME Statistics Program is in its second full year. In 2006-07, StatsCan conducted e4xtensive
consultations with stakeholders on concepts (e.g. size classes) and content (e.g. business
demographics and performance indicators), and developed new employment measures to count
full time and part time employment. In 2007-08, they created a SMEstats data warehouse with
tax data for 1999-2006 (with key variables for sector, employment, revenue, and age of firm). In
2008-09, they plan to load additional administrative data into the data warehouse, including
selected balance sheet and income statement variables, and to generate additional performance
indicators (SME value-added, as a GDP proxy, and profit ratios). The Program will be able to
support future research and analysis on special topics such as exports, innovation, R&D, etc by
linking this file to sample survey data.
Finally, Mr. Evers shared the indicators for entrepreneurship performance that are being utilized,
including business birth rate, business death rate, new business population growth rate, 3 and 5
year firm survival rates, employment impacts, and measures for firm growth, value-added,
innovation, productivity contribution, and export performance.
Participants asked a number of questions.
Q: Does the Government of Canada offer incentives to SMEs to provide information.
What is the mechanism for gathering data and disseminating the data? Is the data
released to SMEs?
A: All businesses in Canada must be registered, but the cost to them for doing this is low and
very simple. The tax system is well organized. SMEs complain about having to report to the
Canadian Revenue Authority (CRA), but StatsCan has an agreement with the CRA to share data.
CRA gives StatsCan data on a monthly basis. StatsCan does share data with SMEs to help them
make better business decisions, although never gives them micro data. Larger businesses have
more capacity to come to StatsCan to buy data they find this useful for their planning, but
SMEs cannot afford to do this. StatsCan also has a useful alliance with the Canadian Federation
of Independent Business, the largest SME membership organization in the country.
Q: How does StatsCan guarantee the precision of the available data if SMEs underreport employment or revenue? If this happens, the quality of the data will be affected.
A: Data is as good as reported by SMEs and its probably as good as youre going to get.
Employment data is better than revenue data because all SMEs have to register their employees
for unemployment insurance, Canada Pension Plan, etc. If employers do not do this, their
employees can report them.
Q: The system in Egypt is entirely different because of the large size of the informal sector and
informal enterprises lack confidence. They are afraid of taxation and social insurance afraid of
the government. How can Egypt develop better relationships with informal SMEs?
A: Mr. Evers answered that there is no magic solution. StatsCan has responsibility as a data
provider it has to measure what it can measure. So the Egyptian government should develop
baseline measures for the formal economy and start with that. Track what you can track. Be
pragmatic. Start with what you have and progress in a step-by-step approach.
Mr. Lindner added that the informal economy is a very important issue. OECD countries work
with non-OECD countries and use National Accounts to measure the informal economy, for
example in the Balkans. OECD can help Egypt through its project on the shadow economy to
measure the size of its informal economy relative to GDP. He also mentioned there is smuggling
across borders, which affects Trade statistics and the OECD has found ways to measure the size
of this problem as well. He added that offering information back to SMEs, especially data on a
regional level, can be used as an incentive for them to provide data.
Q: What advice is there on the problem of measuring the informal economy?
A: Mr. Evers explained that he went to the Bahamas to advise the government on developing a
Business Register. The Bahamas also has a very large informal sector. The government there was
using all kinds of data to measure the size of the sector, e.g. utility usage. Proxies for the size of
the sector can also be estimated through sample surveys in selected regions of the country.
Results from this sample will generate empirical evidence that can be used to make national
projections. In some countries, Census Regions are used to define the sample area. Door-to-door
surveys are needed to get a good profile of the informal economy on sector, employment, etc.
Mr. Lindner stated that he worked for two decades in transition countries, such as Russia. There,
he used the equation approach used consumption figures and then estimated whether
production estimates were consistent with consumption figures. If there is a gap, it is likely the
size of the informal economy. Ms. Stevenson added that a researcher by the name of Schneider
has outlined a number of proxy methods to measure the informal economy and used these to
benchmark over 135 developed and developing countries on the size of their shadow
economies.
Lessons learned from the Canadian presentation
There were many useful lessons learned for Egypt in this case study example.
Policy demand is the driver behind the SME Statistics Program.

The SME definition for statistical purposes should be based on (at least) employment
category breakdowns that are consistent with international standards.
The base for the SME Statistics Program is the Business Register.
Timely and quality data on SMEs is generated by linking administrative files (taxation,
payroll) with the Business Register data.
It is important to have a unique identifier for each enterprise.
Key variables such as sector, employment, revenue, and age of enterprise are sufficient to
start building a SME Statistics Program.
The size of the informal economy can be estimated through sample surveys in selected
regions of the country and by using proxy indicators.
Egypt should start by developing baseline measures for the formal economy (track what
can be tracked) and progress in a step-by-step fashion.
Key stakeholders and data users should be consulted in the process of designing a SME
Statistics Program.
C: Workshop Session 2: European Statistics on SMEs, business demography and

entrepreneurship
12:00 13:00
Workshop leader 2: Dr. Axel Behrens, Head of the Development and

Analysis Section of Structural Business Statistics (SBS), Eurostat
Dr. Behrens stated that the European Union has a Law on Structural Business Statistics (SBS)
and gave a general overview of SBS in the EU. (His presentation is attached as Annex 5.) The
10
SBS consists of four sections: business registers; data production by activity (NACE) and quality
assurance; statistics on manufactured goods; and development and analysis.
Although the European Commission definition of SMEs is based on employment, annual
turnover, and annual balance sheet total, EuroStat only uses employment in its data collection
and reporting activity. Employment size categories are: 0; 1-4; 5-9; 10-19; 20-49; 50-249; and
>249. SMEs (less than 250 employees) make up 99.3% of all EU enterprises.
He explained that the Business Demography Project, a new initiative, responded to high political
demand for data on enterprise births and deaths (considered indicators for innovation and
entrepreneurship in an economy). While some data on this existed in some EU countries, it was
largely not comparable, so there was a big need for harmonizing the data; data on such things as
the number of enterprises and employees, the population of active enterprises, the real enterprise
birth rate, the survival rate of new enterprises (up to five years of age), etc.
The methodological challenge was how to capture real enterprise births and deaths. He indicated
that data for this was taken from the Business Register and as one piece of advice, he stressed,
that if you do nothing else, invest in a good Business Register. He shared some
comparative data for birth rates, survival rates and death rates across different countries,
revealing vast differences between countries.
The newest development in EuroStat is the Entrepreneurship Program. They have created an
additional series on employer businesses, to establish an employer business demography.
They did this because policymakers are not that interested in self-employment, own-account
enterprises and more interested in enterprise births where jobs are being created. EuroStat
recently published a methodological manual on how to produce such a database. Dr. Behrens
shared some comparative results from this employer business demography project.
He also shared information of the Factors of Business Success (FoBS) project. This project
targeted enterprises born in 2002 that had survived for three years a sub-population of
enterprises that are still managed by the founder, again using the Business Register as the
sampling frame. The survey results rendered a profile of successful entrepreneurs. This survey
has now been done in 15 countries. One of the interesting findings is that the extent to which
entrepreneurs consider their enterprises as innovative increases with level of education of the
founder, but profitability does not correlate with education level). Entrepreneurs consider their
main start-up difficulties as contact with customers and administrative problems.
Q: Does the survey ask questions about the outsourcing or sub-contracting behaviour of
the successful firms?
A: He doesnt think so.
Q: What are the failure factors?
A: The survey has not looked at failures. It is up to policymakers to decide if they want data on
failures, but such data is difficult to obtain because often it is not possible to locate the
entrepreneur of a failed business.
Q: Is a National Business Number sufficient to produce data on business birth and
deaths? Egypt has started to issue identifier numbers of enterprises, for example, to micro and
11
small enterprises that register through the SFD. Should a national number be issued to all
enterprises?
A: You should have a simple system for unique business numbers and apply it consistently.
Q: How do you approach the harmonization of data that is collected by a number of
stakeholders? Do you change the structure for each stakeholder or just the way they
collect data? Who would be in charge of coordinating or leading such a harmonization
effort?
A: The most efficient mechanism for doing this is through the National Statistical Office, like in
the Canadian example of Statistics Canada. In the EU, the Business Register is normally held by
the National Statistical Office, with rare exception.
Q: CAPMAS reported that they have a large amount of data on the number of enterprises in
Egypt, in which sectors, etc. and even more statistics on industrial enterprises. They do an annual
survey of industrial enterprises with more than 10 employees and take an inventory of all
businesses that comply with law 159. Every five years, CAPMAS does a Census of employers
with less than five employees (assets, revenues, wages, etc.)
A: In response to this comment, Mr. Lindner stated that he understands the tension between
policymakers and the National Statistical Office. Policymakers need urgent information and
cannot wait for five year intervals to get it so they end up hiring contractors to do more
immediate surveys for them. He recommended that the Business Register belong to the National
Statistical Office. This is a core issue and key statistical problem. There has to be an interface
between the National Statistical Office and ministries. Its not always easy, but in good practice
countries, the National Statistical Office has the Business Register. This has to be the crosscountry body to integrate Business Register activity. Core statistics should be produced by the
National Statistical Office, and provided as a service to all Ministries.
Dr. Behrens continued with his presentation on the Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme,
the objective of which is to develop comparable measures of entrepreneurship across countries.
When the project started in 2004-05, there was activity going on in different countries but no
comparable indicators. The EU wanted to produce a regular scoreboard with common language,
terminology and measures, making entrepreneurship data mainstream. The project was
launched in 2006. A 15-country Entrepreneurship Indicators Working Group was established.
EuroStat and the OECD partnered in their efforts in 2007. An Entrepreneurship Indicators
Manual drafting group has been working on this; the potential coverage is 40+ countries. The
Manual includes core definitions and a framework for understanding and developing the
indicators. The basis will be the EuroStat/ OECD Manual on Business Demography (2007).
Data collection is underway, using a model of the entrepreneurial process: Determinants of
entrepreneurship (e.g. number of days to start a business, education access, access to financing,
technology spillover, the regulatory framework, market conditions, culture); Performance (firms
entering and exit, employment, self-employment/ start-up rates, firms employment rates,
performance of growth firms, production, export share of 3-5 year old firms, value-added for
young firms); and Impact (e.g. job creation, economic growth, poverty reduction, culture change,
etc.). Not all specific indicators have been agreed to, but the working group has reached
agreement on the broad categories.
12
Performance indicators will be ready in 2008 and the draft manual by the summer of 2008. A
seminar on determinants will be held in June 2008.
Q: Could Egypt participate in the Entrepreneurship Indicators Project in some way?
A: Yes, Countries have to ask to become involved and there is a formal procedure. Egypt is
involved in the MEDSTAT initiative but this initiative does not deal with business statistics.
MEDSTAT is coming to an end and will not be continued. It will be replaced by bilateral
country by country arrangements.
Lessons learned from the EuroStat presentation
High policy demand is the driver behind the EuroStat project on Business Demography
policymakers seek more information on business births and deaths as indicators for
innovation and entrepreneurship.
The most critical thing to be done to improve SME data is building a Business Register.
The Business Register should be held by the National Statistical Office.
The National Statistical Office should be the body responsible for harmonizing SMErelated data across administrative units.
A simple business identifier number should be implemented and applied consistently
across ministries.
The SME definition for statistical purposes should be consistent with international
standards in terms of employment size category breakdowns.
Sampling surveys and censuses are an inefficient and costly alternative to collecting data
on SMEs; a Business Register is much more efficient, less burdensome for SMEs and can
be updated regularly, thus providing more timely policy input.
Egypt could participate in the OECD-EuroStat Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme
upon official request.
D: Workshop Session 3: OECD work on SME statistics: policy and indicators

13:15 14:15 Workshop leader 3: Mr. Andreas Lindner, Head of the Trade and
Globalisation Statistics Section, OECD Statistics Directorate, OECD
Mr. Lindner started by describing the OECD mission and structure and the situation of SMEs in
OECD countries. (His presentation is attached as Annex 6.) The genesis of the OECD work on
SMEs is policy driven and involves stocktaking of policy issues and solutions and stocktaking of
SME statistics. An OECD survey of the business frames used for SME statistics in member
countries revealed several inconsistencies and limitations (e.g. using different sources, different
thresholds, different updating intervals, different statistical units, different definitions for the
variables for measuring the SME sector, etc.).
He stressed the importance of having the National Statistical Office as the coordinator and
collector of SME data, enabling that Office with full access to administrative data, and using a
common identifier for enterprises across administrative units. He also advocated use of coherent
size classes to capture and report data on SMEs in order to facilitate international comparisons,
agreeing with the previous workshop presenters that the appropriate cut-offs are: 0, 1-4, 5-9, 1019, 20-49, 50-249, and >249. He emphasized that use of an identifier number for each enterprise
allowed for better tracing of firms over time (entry, exit, growth, etc.).
13
Mr. Lindner also mentioned the importance of being able to link SME statistics with Trade
statistics by linking the Business Register data with the Trade Register data. By doing this,
governments can identify trade patterns by sector, niche markets, where SMEs are trading by
country, etc., data that can be used for policy advice. However, not all OECD countries have
formal Trade Registers, although in over half of the countries, the Trade Register is linked to the
Business Register and data from fiscal authorities. The Trade Register can be updated using
Customs declarations.
He referred to the OECD-EuroStat Entrepreneurship Indicators Program (EIP) as well, sharing
detail on the EIP definitions of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurship, and
important principles guiding the program.
Next, Mr. Lindner talked about the increasing importance of having a Business Register. He
described this as the key to managing the complex statistical systems in a resource-effective and
efficient way, and a pre-condition for understanding the SME segment of the economy. He
agreed with Mr. Evers that a coherent Business Register can answer most, if not all, of the
needed information about SMEs without routinely burdening SMEs with requests for survey
data.
The next OECD meeting of the International Working Group on Business Registers will be held
22-24 November, 2008. Mr. Lindner suggested that the Egyptian government make a formal
request to the OECD to participate in that meeting.
He indicated that Business Registers can include: enterprise registers (name, activity, and ID
number of the enterprise); VAT registers, income declarations; accounts data; foreign trade
register; farm register; patent register; etc. He shared case studies from the Netherlands and
Germany as countries that have excelled in the Business Register area.
Q: What would be required, organizationally, to implement a Business Register project,
like Germany did, what kind of costs would be involved, and how long would the process
take?
A: First, Germany did a national stocktaking. The National Statistical Office is under the
Ministry of the Interior. Its vetting power and prerogative is recognized, but all Ministries have
their own databases for policy. The opportunity was to integrate them into a common database.
The approach used in Germany would have to be adapted for Egypt, but the same principles
could be applied.
Dr. Behrens added that in some EU countries where statistical systems are more mature (i.e.
developed a number of years ago), they have more difficulty adapting to emerging developments
in the statistical field. New member countries have been able to build up their statistical systems
in a much easier way. It is very important that ministries are willing to cooperate with each other
in the project, but it does not have to be expensive. The investment can be further reduced by
learning from what others have done in terms of structural design.
Mr. Evers agreed with the approach of adapting an organizational structure and design, but
added there will be costs to reconcile business registers into one integrated Business Register. If
there is a single identifier number for enterprises, for example, care has to be taken to ensure it
relates to the same thing across Registers. The process can be a very labour intensive one.
14
Q: What are some models and examples of problems of collecting data on informal
enterprises and the solution to these?
A: Mr. Lindner responded that there are ways of addressing the informal issue. Give informal
enterprises incentives; do not ask them for the same information more than once; streamline
questions asked by the Chamber of Commerce, SFD, etc; give information back to them.
Q: What about OECD stats on SMEs, like contribution of SMEs to employment, GDP,
etc? Is there a regular report produced that Egypt can use as a guide for what indicators
to use?
A: This information can be found on the OECD website (ww.oecd.org). Lots of research papers
can be found there.
Q: Does the OECD cooperate with developing countries and can it provide financial or
technical assistance to Egypt, and if so, through what process?
A: Several OECD Directorates offer assistance. Paris 21 has a capacity-building institution
within it to focus on developing countries. Developing countries can seek Observer status with
the OECD; it is more and more the practice of allowing developing countries to sit as observers.
The Egyptian government would have to send an official letter to the OECD Director-General
requesting Observer Status.
Lessons learned from the OECD presentation
The National Statistical Office should be the coordinator and collector of SME data with
full access to administrative data held by other ministries.
A common identifier should be used for each enterprise.
Countries should use coherent and internationally consistent size classes for reporting on
SME data.
The Business Register is the key to managing complex statistical systems and a precondition for understanding the SME sector.
Useful statistics can be obtained by linking the Business Register with the Trade Register.
Egypt can learn useful lessons from other countries that have integrated their business
registers, such as Germany and the Netherlands.
Egypt could participate in the next meeting of the International Working Group on
Business Registers taking place November 22-24, 2008, by extending a formal request to
the OECD.
Egypt could also officially request Observer Status in the OECD and thus benefit from
all SME statistical work being done by the OECD.
E: Concluding panel session:

14:15 15:00 Key lessons learned during the day and how it can help Egyptians move
forward to improve the statistical system and produce better data on the SME
sector.
In this session, several participants stated that they had benefited greatly from the workshop and
remarked on the high calibre of the international speakers. One such participant indicated that he
15
learned that Egypt may have to be content with the SME definition issue (others agreed) and
instead of debating that further, devote more time to more important issues. He recommended
that Egypt start with sorting out data issues for the formal sector, where more data is available,
and develop good reporting. This would help advance the Egyptian knowledge base about
formal SMEs at least. Then the informal sector data issues could be tackled over time. There are
80,000 regulations in Egypt these have to be eliminated to help SMEs.
Another participant proposed that we start with developing a very good database using data on
employees, employers. This might give us a 70 percent complete database and we can develop
from there.
On the issue of a SME definition, Mr. Lindner advocated for a definition that is in line with
international organizations.
Q: In light of the merger of tax departments, how will the Tax Authority deal with
combining data sets?
A: In 2006 there was a public decree to merge the Sales and Income Tax Authorities. In the
future, SMEs will have to deal with only one tax agency with one report on sales and profits.
Mr. Evers remarked that, if there really is an initiative to integrate the sales and income tax files,
Egypt has a golden opportunity not only to bring these files together with a common identifier,
but to provide the single business identifier and core business descriptions to the National
Statistical Office to start developing the formal Business Register.
The Tax Authority official stated that the tax files are sorted into three groups: small tax payers,
medium tax payers, and large tax payers. They will have a Register for the 3 groups.
CAPMAS reported that they have the right to collect information from all SMEs in Egypt and
that this information is collected at the level of the governorate.
Mr. Evers commented on the use of Census surveys, stating that in the long run, these are not
sustainable. Information becomes stale and there is a huge operational cost to surveying firms.
The notion of the Business Register is that once you have the core data (employment, sales, etc.),
then you can refresh the Business Register quarterly or annually. Dr. Behrens supported this
viewpoint, citing the experience of Portugal.
A representative from the Ministry of Trade and Industry added that Egypt needs more
consistent survey data and proxy indicators for the informal sector. Current surveys are only a
partial solution to information needs.
Another participant noted that Egypt has a jungle of laws and regulations governing statistics
and that these statistical laws need to be streamlined to be in line with the systematic statistical
systems in Canada and the European countries.
The SFD endorsed the need for more consistent data collection and indicated its willingness to
link their work with other peoples expertise.
16
Closing remarks
Mr. Abdel Aziz presented closing remarks. He concluded that Egypt needs an integrated
statistical/ data system on MSMEs and that we need to lay out a procedure for developing this.
He proposed that the Tax Authority agree to the necessary approach to integrate the tax data
files.
He urged that ministries have to cooperate with each other in the collecting of data and the
sharing of data across and between ministries.
He informed that participants will receive a copy of the workshop outcome report and that the
SME Unit will recommend to the Minister of Finance that a Committee be formed to initiate a
response to recommendations and suggestions arising from the workshop.
17
Annex 1: Agenda
SME Data Workshop

January 17, 2008
9:30 15:00
Cairo Sheraton, Nefertiti Room
AGENDA
9:30 10:00
Registration and welcome refreshments
10:00 10:15
Opening remarks: Mr. Mohamed Abdel Aziz, Manager, SME Unit, Ministry of
Finance and Ms. Lois Stevenson, SME Specialist, International Development Research
Centre and SMEPol Project Coordinator
Introductions of workshop participants
10:15 10:45
Recap and confirmation of the major SME data and statistical challenges in Egypt
identified at September 26, 2007 Roundtable.
Introductions of three international experts and themes for the day.
10:45 11:45
Workshop leader 1: Mr. Terry Evers, Director of Small Business and Special
Surveys Division (SBSSD), Statistics Canada
This presentation will focus on how Stats Can built its comprehensive SME Statistics
Program, including obstacles, solutions, current status and future of Statistics Canada's
SME Statistics Program. There will be several lessons learned for Egyptian officials on
how such a comprehensive system could be approached in Egypt.
10:45 12:00
Refreshment break
12:00 13:00
Workshop leader 2: Dr. Axel Behrens, Head of the Development and Analysis
Section of Structural Business Statistics (SBS), Eurostat
This presentation will focus briefly on the role of Eurostat and then the latest
developments regarding:
the new Regulation (law for EU Member States) for structural business statistics
including SME statistics,
18
business demography as part of the new Regulation for structural business

statistics and the link to SME statistics,
joint Eurostat/OECD entrepreneurship indicators project; and the link to
business demography and SME statistics
13:00 13:15
Refreshment Break
13:15 14:15
Workshop leader 3: Mr. Andreas Lindner, Head of the Trade and Globalisation
Statistics Section, OECD Statistics Directorate, OECD
This presentation will focus briefly on the role of OECD Statistics and then on issues
related to:
Growing importance of SMEs for job creation, growing policy interest, OECD
initiatives to tackle this
SME characteristics in OECD countries
o Problems, challenges, indicators
The interface SMEs, Entrepreneurship Indicators and Business Demography
Difficulties of international SME comparisons due to different definitions,
thresholds, etc.
How to tackle building up a comprehensive SME data base for policy making.
o
The importance of good and effective register design lessons learned
The need to integrate different administrative sources into one
comprehensive and multi-output data warehouse
The cost effectiveness of good business register design
Some country experiences
o
Linking business statistics to todays globalized worlds an imperative
Some statistical challenges stemming from globalization
Its application to SMEs: linking SBS data to trade statistics
Some indicators
14:15 15:00
Concluding panel session: Key lessons learned during the day and how it can help
Egyptians move forward to improve the statistical system and produce better data on
the SME sector.
15:00 16:00
Lunch and networking
19
Annex 2: List of participants

Organization
Name & Title
Telephone
Fax
1. CAPMAS
Ahmed Said Morsy Ahmed ,

Manager of Research
Department
2402 41 70;
0101314025
226 36 464
2. CAPMAS
Dorreya Abbass Mohamed
24024031
ext. 236
3. CAPMAS
Hanaa Abd El Hady Abd

Allah
24024170
22636404
Press.Capmas@capmas.gov.eg
4. Egyptian Center for

Economic Studies (ECES)
Dr. Nihal El-Megharbel ,

Principal Economist
24619037
24619038
24619045
nmagdy@eces.org.eg
5. European Commission
(EuroStat)
Dr. Axel Behrens,

Head, Development and
Analysis Section of Structural
Business Statistics (SBS)
Rodrigo Romero van
Cutsem,
Trade Expert, Trade, Science
& Enterprise Section
Dr. Amr Hamdi Eldin
Hassan,
General Manager for SMEs,
Investing in the
Governorates Sector
Mohamed Mohamed Abou
Serea,
Economic Researcher, Onestop Shop
Amr Mohamed Taha
Information/Monitoring &
Evaluation Manager
6. European Union
7. General Authority for

Investment (GAFI)
8. General Authority for

Investment (GAFI)
9. Industrial Modernization
Centre
E-mail
Axel.Behrens@ec.europa.eu
3749 4680/218
3749 5363
Rodrigo.ROMERO-VANCUTSEM@ec.europa.eu
ahossy@gmail.com
2405 5452;
2405 5616
m2a2000@hotmail.com
25722228
25772870
amrtaha@imc-egypt.org
10. Information and Decision

Support Centre (IDSC)
Dr. Sohair El Sherif,

Manager of Project
Warehouse Info. For SMEs
27929292
27929222
selsherif@idsc.net.eg
11. Information and Decision

Support Centre (IDSC)
Dr. Ashraf Shaheen,

Executive Manager,
Information Dissemination
7929 292
7929 222
amohamed@idsc.net.eg
12. International Development

Research Centre (IDRC)
Lois Stevenson,
Senior SME Specialist &
SMEPol Project Coordinator
25789129
27730139
lstevenson@idrc.org.eg
13. Ministry of Finance
Dr. Mohamed Soruor,

Advisor to the Assistant of
the Minister of Finance
Mohamed Abdel Aziz,
SMEPol Unit Manager
Samer Sayed,
IT Specialist
Nerveen Osman,
SME Specialist
2792 0774;
25789129
27730139
maziz@sme.gov.eg
25789129
27730139
samer@sme.gov.eg
25789129
27730139
nosman@sme.gov.eg
14. Ministry of Finance/

SMEPoL
SMEPoL
SMEPoL
20
17. Ministry of Investment
18. Ministry of Trade &

Industry
Industry

Industry
Industry
Industry
Industry
24. National Authority for
Social Insurance
Social Insurance
Social Insurance
27. OECD
Nesma Mostafa Abass,

Economic Researcher,
Technical Office of the
Minister
Hussien Abdel Mottaleb,
SMEs Manager
Azza Mohamed Kamal,
Head of the Agriculture, SPS
&TBT Department, Central
Department of World Trade
Organization, Trade
Agreements Sector
Dr. Beiomy El Shimy,
General Manager SME
department
Sayada Abd Allah,
SME Department
240 55651/2/3
24055635/36
Hossien159@yahoo.com
2342 2342
2342 1768
23420982
a.mohamed@tas.gov.eg;
azza_mkamal@yahoo.com
elshimy@mfti.gov.eg
Doaa Abdel Salam Mahram,

International Trade
Researcher
Sherein Fayed
Hisham Kandil,
Undersecretary of the
Ministry of Insurance
Mohamed Said Abdel Lataf
Ali,
Director, Inspection
Department
Samy Mohamed Abdel Hady
Mohamed,
General Manager of Internal
Mr. Andreas Lindner,
Head, International Trade
and Globalization Statistics
nmostafa@investment.gov.eg
d.mahram@tas.gov.eg
s.fayed@tas.gov.eg
2792 1140
2787 0391;
2593 7891
2591 2453
andreas.lindner@oecd.org
28. Social Fund for

Development
Emil Michelle George,

Social Fund Representative
3332 2039
Emil_George2olo@yahoo.com
29. Social Fund for

Development
Maha Osama Mehanna,

Assistant to the Manager
3332 2262
Maha.mehanna@gmail.com
30. Social Fund for

Development
Samir Amin Abdel Hamid,

Manager of Services Unit for
SMEs
Mr. Terry Evers Director,
Small Business and Special
Surveys Division
3761 0290
31. Statistics Canada
3749 2830
terry.evers@statcan.ca
21
Annex 3: International presenters

Mr. Terry Evers is the Director of Small Business and Special Surveys Division (SBSSD),
Statistics Canada. Mr. Evers has a degree in Geography and Sociology as well as a diploma in
Informatics. Having spent 34 years in Statistics Canada, he has extensive experience in all aspects of
survey design, systems development, data collection and dissemination. Over the years he has
worked on a wide variety of business and social statistical programs.
As Director of SBSSD, Mr. Evers is responsible for the Small Business Program in Statistics Canada
which includes a large recurring national survey on SME demand for financing and the SME Statistics
Project. Also, under his responsibility are many ad hoc and recurring business surveys conducted on a
cost recovery basis for other Federal and Provincial Government Departments. These include surveys
on compensation, working conditions, energy use, cost of regulatory compliance etc.
Prior to this, Mr. Evers was the Assistant Director in the Business Register Division of Statistics
Canada. As such, he was responsible for all activities related to the collection, processing, profiling
and updating of the Business Register. Mr. Evers currently sits on the OECD Entrepreneurship
Indicators Steering Group, Industry Canadas Small Business Research Advisory Committee,
Aboriginal International Business Development Committee and the Paper Burden Reduction Initiative
Working Group.
Dr. Axel Behrens is permanent official of the European Commission and currently heads the
Development and Analysis Section of Structural Business Statistics (SBS), after having worked in
price statistics, regional statistics and short term statistics. He received his doctorate in 1991 at the
University of Kiel in international economics. Before entering the European Commission in 1995, he
was assistant professor at the University of Konstanz.
Under his responsibility falls the new SBS Regulation setting the standards for all EU Member States
in terms of structural business statistics, including the new parts on business services and business
demography. Furthermore, he is in charge of the new Foreign Affiliates statistics (FATS). The current
work of his section includes also some ad hoc studies, like the Factors of Business Success for newly
born enterprises, an ad hoc project on international sourcing and a project on demand for services.
Besides that, he is vice chairman of the OECD steering group concerning entrepreneurship indicators.
The collection of those indicators, mainly based on business demography has started on EU and
OECD level. A first publication is foreseen for spring 2008.
Mr. Andreas Lindner, a German international economist and statistician, is Head of the Trade
and Globalisation Statistics Section of the Statistics Directorate at OECD. He holds a master
degree in economics from Freiburg University, Germany and an English degree from Cambridge
University. In his long career of 31 years at OECD, he specialised in various statistical key domains
such as business statistics, trade statistics, globalisation statistics, R&D statistics and agricultural
statistics. An elected member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), he is also member of the
IAOS and of several international statistical groups. At OECD he chairs the Steering Group on linking
business statistics to trade statistics and is organiser and OECD chair of the Working Group on
International Merchandise Trade Statistics and Trade in Services Statistics, which has held major
annual meetings since 1999. More recently, he is particularly involved in statistical system/register
design issues as member of the Steering Group of the Wiesbaden City Group on Business Survey
Frames (a UN City group, formerly known as International Roundtable on Business Registers). He
organises the forthcoming meeting of this international expert group, hosted by OECD in November
2008.
He was responsible for the statistical workshop at the OECD Ministerial meeting on SMEs (Istanbul,
2004), which led to the development of SME statistics at OECD, the entrepreneurial indicators project
and business demography statistics. He is playing a key role in further developing SME statistics in
the context of linking SMEs to trade statistics, adaptation of business statistics to globalisation and
statistical system design.
22
Annex 4: SME Statistics Program, Statistics Canada (PPT)
23
SME Statistics
SME Statistics Program
Introduction
Small Business and Special Surveys

Division
Statistics Canada
Strong interest in SMEs because of contribution to

employment and innovation (Government priorities)
Policy areas demanding detailed / high quality SME data to

support policy development geared specifically at SME growth
as opposed to business start-ups
Conference Past, Present and Future: SMEPOLicy in Egypt

Egypt
January 2008
Industry Canada, Canadian Federation of Independent Business,

Provincial Departments for Economic Development
International Ministerial support for the development of

comparable SME data
OECD / Eurostat support for the development of
standard demography statistics and entrepreneurship
performance indicators
1
SME Statistics
Business Problem
Obstacle
Unable to create a comprehensive picture of SMEs in Canada

Limits comparisons to other countries
Adopt standard size groups based on employment

aligned with OECD and Eurostat
Users dont know what data STC has on SMEs; how /

where to get it; and how to interpret it because of
different concepts in use
Achieving consensus on a definition of small and medium

Achieving consensus on how to measure size Emp vs Rev
How resolved
Lack standard measures of SME performance to

assess productivity, growth, competitiveness etc.
Accessibility
Different users / Different requirements
In STC / nationally / internationally
No standard definitions for SMEs
0, 1-4, 5-9, 10-19, 20-49, 50-99, 100-249, > 249

Report all data by size group allowing users to define their own
coverage
Carry revenue as an auxiliary variable so outputs by

revenue can be produced
3
Obstacle
How resolved
Obstacle
How resolved
Managing expectations
Clear definition of Program Objectives
Produce on an annual basis statistics to support policy

development and international country comparisons
Agreeing on program content

The base program would only include core statistics
Core defined as:
SME business demography statistics

SME performance indicators
No official industrial estimates or employment estimates

Leverage existing administrative data
Funding for data gaps must come from stakeholders
Variables available from existing administrative sources on an

annual bases (Longtitudinal)
Variables for which a discrete value is known for each and every
business in Canada with acceptable quality
In so doing the data is both comprehensive and

consistent over time
Allow us to measure change over time
5
24
Obstacle
Agreeing on the unit of observation
0 employees
1-4 employees
5-9 employees
10-19 employees
20-49 employees
50-99 employees
100-249 employees
> 249 employees
For international comparisons the unit of observation

needs to be enterprise as it has the same legal definition
internationally
Enterprise Counts
How resolved
For SMEs enterprise and establishment are one and the same
It is only with large enterprises that establishment / enterprise
becomes an issue
1,290,000
560,000
169,000
92,000
56,000
18,000
8,000
20,000
58.3%
25.3%
7.6%
4.2%
2.5%
0.8%
0.4%
0.9%
(116,000 establishments)
Total Enterprises
2,213,000
Note: At present > 249 not included
Obstacle
Getting complete, timely, high quality data for all

businesses in Canada
Obstacle
How resolved
Exploit Canada Revenue Agency administrative data to

the maximum
Ensuring that the SME Statistics Program remains fully

aligned with Statistics Canadas Business Register
Use Payroll Remittance Data to obtain employment data

Use T1 and T2 tax data to obtain balance sheet and income
statement data
Full set of data for a given tax year is available by September of
the following year (ex. Tax year 2006 complete data available
by September 2007)
How resolved
The program coverage is dictated by the Business

Register
Facilitated by unique Business Number

8
Status
Obstacle - Confidentiality
Phase 1 (FY 06 - 07)

Extensive consultation with stakeholders on concepts (size
classes based on Emp and Rev) and content (Bus
demographics and performance measures)
Development of new employment measures
Users want most detailed data possible (Industry 6 digit NAICS,

Geography sub provincial breakdown, business size or revenue
size)
For any given dimension this is not a problem
Multi dimensional cross tabulations and selected sub-populations
(high growth / gazelles) problematic
Small numbers of businesses in the larger size groups
Based on Payroll Remittance Data to Canada Revenue Agency
How resolved
All employer business in Canada

All non-employer business with at least $30K in GST sales
Administrative data is loaded for each active business in

the Business Register for each reference year
9
Business counts from the SME Statistics Program need to be

consistent with annual, quarterly, monthly survey estimates
Standard annual outputs free - additional customized outputs

generated as required on a cost recovery basis
Users need to decide what the most important dimension(s) is to
maximize the useful information presented in the output tables
10
Avg 12 month head count for EMP

Annual EI contributions to determine full time / part time Emp
Phase 2 (FY 07-08)

Created SMEstats data warehouse with tax data for 1999
2006 (Key variables included Ind, emp, rev, age)
11
25
Bus. Demography Statistics
Firms
Tax data 1999 - 2006

Demographic
Characteristic
Ind
Dimension
Prov Emp size
# Firms
Emp count
Age of Business
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Entrepreneurship Performance Indicators
Y
Y
Y
Rev size
Employment
Wealth
Employer firm birth rate
High growth firm rate by

employment
High growth firm rate by

turnover
Employer firm death

rate
Gazelle rate by employment
Gazelle rate by turnover
Business churn
Ownership rate start-ups
Value-added by young firms
Net business population

growth
Ownership rate business population
Productivity contribution,
young firms
Survival rate, 3 and 5

years
Employment 3 and 5 year old firms
Innovation performance,
young or small firms
Proportion 3 and 5 year

survival
Average firm size after 3 and 5 years
Export performance, small

firms
12
Phase 3 (FY 08-09)
Load additional admin data into DW
Selected balance sheet and Income statement variables
Future Perspective
Leveraging the SME Statistics Program
Profit, salaries & wages, depreciation, net interest paid etc
Generate additional performance indicators
Given that the Program has core micro data for each business in
Canada we will be able to create custom tabs for users on a cost
recovery basis
SME Value added (GDP proxy)

Profit ratios
The Program will be able to support future research and analysis on

special topics such as exports, innovation, research and
development by linking this file to sample survey data
Provincial Governments has already expressed interest in sub-provincial

data
Contains all core business characteristics for the universe of SMEs
15
14
26
Annex 5: European Statistics on SMEs, business demography and

entrepreneurship (PPT)
27
The European Commission

Annex 5
is a supranational organisation and:

the executive branch of the European Union,
i.e. implementing decisions
European Statistics on
SMEs, business demography
and entrepreneurship
the body for proposing legislation (right of

initiative)
upholding the Union's treaties (guardian of the
treaty)
running day-to-day of the European Union
axel.behrens@ec.europa.eu
Eurostat
The European Commission
is providing official statistics, especially for

EU policies (agriculture, regional, Lisbon
process)
negotiating and setting standards with
methodological manuals
proposing legislation for statistics to be
delivered from Member States and standards
to be complied with (including legislative
follow-up)
does not conduct surveys!
Cosists of Directorates General (DGs)

EU Policies
Agriculture
Regional
others
External Relations
General services
e.g. Publication Office
Statistical Office (Eurostat)
Internal Services
Eurostat Structural Business Statistics
Consists of four sections:
The collection by activity (NACE 4-digit)

is based on a legal act (SBS recast):
business registers
data production by activity (NACE) and
quality insurance
Annex I: General
statistics on manufactured products
Annex III: Distributive Trade
development and analysis
Annex IV: Construction
Annex II: Industry
28

cont.
Annex V: Insurance
SMEs
Size Class Breakdown
Annex VI: Credit Institutions

Annex VII: Pension Funds
Annex VIII: Business Services (new)
Annex IX: Business Demography (new)
Definition SMEs
Commission definition of SMEs (2003/361)
SMEs:
Employment less than 250 persons
Annual turnover less than 50 Million
Annual balance sheet total less than 43 Million
Small enterprise
Annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total
less than 10 Million
Microenterprise:
Annual turnover and/or Annual balance sheet total
less than 2 Million
In the data collection, we do

not follow the definition
Just employment
Some facts on SMEs in the European Union
Size Class Breakdown for number of

persons employed
1
2-9
10-19
20-49
50-249
250+
For the data from Annex I IV, i.e.

for the non-financial business
economy at NACE 3-digit.
SMEs represent 99.8% of all EU-27 enterprises

in the non-financial business economy,
employing two thirds of the workforce (66.7%)
and generating 56.9% of total value added;
9 No employment breakdown for the

Annexes V VII
9 Annex VIII has an employment
threshold of 20+ only
9 Annex IX on employees (0,1-4,5-9,10+)
the average large enterprise in the EU-27's

non-financial business economy employed just
over 1 000 persons, compared with
4.4 persons being employed by the average
SME;
29
Some facts on SMEs in the European Union

large enterprises accounted for 90.0% of those
employed in the air transport sector, 88.2% of those
working in post and telecommunications, and
around 85% in two of the energy related activities
In contrast, SMEs employed 92.3% of those persons
employed in recycling, 88.3% of the motor trades'
workforce, and 88.2% of those employed in the
construction sector;
SMEs employed 81.2% of the non-financial business
economy workforce in Italy, a share that is close to
50% in Slovakia and the United Kingdom;
Business Demography
Background
Variables and breakdowns
High political demand (EU Commission and

ECB)
Number of enterprises and persons employed
Data on enterprise births and deaths in Europe

Business Demography data as an indicator of
innovation and successful entrepreneurship
Greenbook on Entrepreneurship (2003),
followed by Entrepreneurship Action Plan.
Lisbon process of the EU: Structural Indicators
Similar statistics already in several Member
States, need for harmonisation
Population of active enterprises

Real enterprise births
Survival of newly born enterprises (up to 5 years)
Real enterprise deaths
NACE: 2 or 3 level codes (subsections / divsions,

groups) + special aggregates (ICT, services)
Size classes according to employees (0, 1-4, 5-9, 10+)
Legal forms (sole proprietorships, partnerships and
limited liability companies)
State of affairs
Methodology
22 EU Member States plus Norway and

Switzerland
ES, (DE), FI, (FR), IT, LU, NL, PT, SE,
UK, CY, CZ, EE, HU, LT, LV, MT, (PL),
SI, SK, BG, RO, CH, NO
Available data
Real births and deaths

New combination of production factors
Identification of births/deaths by excluding entry/exit
due to take-overs, mergers, split-offs, break-ups,
Taking data from business register

1st advantage: no response burden on enterprises.
Eurostat website
Publications: Statistics in Focus, detailed
tables
2nd advantage: availability of populations of newly

born enterprises as sampling frames for specific
surveys, e. g. Factors of Business Success
30
(
1
Enterprise) birth rate, by NACE activity
Enterprise birth rate, business economy
Enterprise survival rate, business economy
Enterprise death rate, business economy
Further development
Employer Business Demography
In the framework of the OECD/Eurostat

programme on entrepreneurship
Cant we just drop the size class 0 employees?

Problem: non-employer becoming employer, i.e. they
enter population of active enterprises with employees
but are not counted as employer birth
Same problem with deaths
creation of additional series of enterprises

with employees (birth only with at least 1
employee) employer business
demography
comparability of data with US, Japan
Methodological manual published, but
further need to harmonise methodologies
of EU and OECD, e.g. for high-growth
enterprises
Solution: entry by growth as case of employer birth

exit by decline as case of employer death
31
Employer Business Demography
HU birth rate 2005
Comparison of birth rates / death rates
Employers / all / all except 0 employees
1. Employer births/deaths based on new metholodology
Covers non-employers becoming employers (births) and viceversa (deaths)
30,0%
25,0%
2. Births/deaths in 2007 harmonised data collection
Covers all enterprises
20,0%
3. Employer births/deaths, size class 0 employees dropped
Old methodology
Only enterprise births / deaths with at least one employee in

the year of birth / death
No entry by growth / exit by decline
15,0%
10,0%
5,0%
0,0%
C2K
NL birth rate 2005
Birth rates 2005, all 5 countries, C to K

20,0%
14,0%
18,0%
16,0%
12,0%
14,0%
10,0%
12,0%
8,0%
10,0%
8,0%
6,0%
6,0%
4,0%
4,0%
2,0%
2,0%
0,0%
HU
0,0%
C2K
IT
NL
RO
SK
Background
Using the BD population as a sampling frame
Successful implementation of Business

Demography: births, deaths, and related
employment variables
Questions of interest
The survey on factors of business

success
What are the factors determining the success /

survival of newly born enterprises?
What are obstacles that new enterprises face?
What support to them is most useful?
What is the profile of the successful entrepreneur?
=> FoBS project
32
Methodology
Elements of the questionnaire (1)
Target population
Start-up conditions and profile of the

entrepreneur
Enterprises that were born in 2002 and survived for 3

years, until the time of the survey in 2005.
Sub-population of enterprises that are still managed

by the founder => profile of the successful
entrepreneur
Business Registers used as sampling frames for

these populations
Motivation for start-up

Financing
Difficulties at start-up
Entrepreneurs characteristics: education,
experience, gender, age, citizenship
Present situation
Employment, turnover
Co-operation, networking
Difficulties developing the enterprise
Surveys in 15 countries (questionnaires, phone,

interviews)
Elements of the questionnaire (2)
Availablity of data
Future plans
Participating countries
Future of the enterprise (continuing, selling,

closing down)
Development of employment, turnover,
investments
CZ, DK, EE, IT, LV, LT, LU, AT, PT, SI, SK, SE,
BG, RO
Available data
Eurostat website
Publications: Statistics in Focus
Main findings of the FoBS survey (1)
Main findings of the FoBS survey
Experience of having worked in the activity and in

running an enterprise help, but are not essential, in
becoming a successful entrepreneur;
the degree to which entrepreneurs consider their

enterprises to be innovative increases with their
educational level;
entrepreneurs consider contacts with customers

and administrative problems as their main start-up
difficulties;
The highest education does not bring about the

highest level of profitability;
the most often-cited motivations for starting-up an
enterprise are the desire to be ones own boss
and the prospect of making more money.
dealing with outstanding invoices to customers is

one of the start-up difficulties more often perceived as
problematic for men than for women;
men are more optimistic about the profitability of
their enterprise;
33
Motivation for starting a business
EntrepreneurshipIndicators
Programme
DevelopingComparableMeasures
ofEntrepreneurship
OECDProposal
EntrepreneurshipIndicatorsProgramme
Observation:There is alotof activities inmany

countries,butthere areno comparableindicators
20042005
OECDstatisticalactivityinitiatedby:
KauffmanFoundation(USA)
DanishledConsortium(ICE)
TheEuropeanCommissionundertheleadof
Eurostat wasalso
ProducearegularScoreboardorCompendium
betterinternationalentrepreneurshipdata
Makeentrepreneurshipdatamainstream
Commonlanguage,terminology,measures
exploringentrepreneurship
LaunchedProgramme in2006
surveyonFactorsofBusinessSuccess(FoBS)
OECDEurostat Countries
Infrastructure
EntrepreneurshipIndicatorsSteeringGroup
PolicyandStatisticalExperts
15CountriesplusInternationalOrganisations
FormalpartnershipwithEurostat in2007
EIPisOECDEurostat EntrepreneurshipIndicators
Programme
Manualdraftinggroup
Potentialcoverageofsome40countries
Outreachtononmembersin2008andbeyond
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Canada
Cyprus
CzechRepublic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
34
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Japan
Korea
Luxembourg
Malta
Mexico
Netherlands
NewZealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
UnitedKingdom
UnitedStates
A Simple Model of the entrepreneurial process
EntrepreneurshipMeasurementManual
Essential
Determinants
CoreDefinitions(seeOECDpresentation)
Frameworkforunderstandinganddeveloping
Indicatorsanddataspecifications
Impact
Entrepreneurial
Performance
Manualplannedfor2008
Manual drafting groupinstalled
ThebasiswillbetheEurostatOECDManualon
BusinessDemography(2007)
DatacollectionnowunderwaybyOECD&EU
Determinants
Determinants
Impact
Impact
Job creation
Entrepreneurial
Performance
Entrepreneurial
Performance
Economic growth
Poverty reduction
Culture
others
Determinants
Determinants
Impact
Impact
Access
to finance
R&D and
technology
Entrepre
neurial
capabilities
Entrepreneurial
Performance
Entrepreneurial
Performance
Market
conditions
Regulatory
framework
Culture
35
Firms
Entrepreneurial
Performance
Employer firm birth rate*

Employer firm death rate*
Rate of high-growth firms

concerning turnover/profits*
Employment
Business churn
Rate of turnover/profit Gazelles
Net business population growth

concerning employment*
Value-added young firms
Survival rate 3 years
Rate of employment Gazelles*
Productivity contribution
Productivity growth contribution

Proportion 3 years survival

Employment rate 3 year old firms
Entrepreneurial
Performance
Determinants
Economic performance
Access
to finance
R&D and
technology
Entrepre
neurial
capabilities
Access to debt
financing
R&D investment
Training and
experience of
entrepreneurs
Business
angels
University
/ industry
interface
Access to VC
Technological
cooperation
between firms
Access to other
Types of
Equity
Technology
diffusion
Stock markets
Broadband
access
Export share of 3 year old firms

Market
conditions
Anti-trust
laws
Competition
Business and
Entrepreneurship
Education (skills)
Entrepreneurship
infrastructure
Immigration
and E-ship
Access to the
domestic market
Access to
foreign
markets
Degree of
public
involvement
Public procurement

Patent system,
standards
Culture
Administrative
burdens for entry
Risk attitude
in societies
Administrative
burdens for
growth
Attitudes
towards
entrepreneurs
Bankruptcy
regulation
Safety and
health
regulation
Environment
regulation
Product
regulation
Court-legal
framework
Labour
market
regulation
Average firm size after 3 years
Social and health

security

Income taxes
% adults starting firms
Firms
Regulatory
framework
Business taxes
Employer firm birth rate*

Employer firm death rate*
Business churn
Net business population growth
Employment
Desire for
business
ownership
Entrepreneurship
Education
(mindset)

concerning employment*
Rate of employment Gazelles
% adults starting firms
Economic performance
concerning turnover/profits*
Rate of turnover/profit Gazelles
Value-added young firms
Productivity contribution
Productivity growth contribution
Capital taxes
Timetable
Publication with Performance Indicators
Spring 2008
Draft Methodological Manual summer 2008
Consultation phase for the manual 2008
Any questions?
Publication of final Methodological Manual

end 2008
Seminar on Determinants June 2008
Further work on Determinants 2008/2009
36
Impact
Job creation
Economic growth
Poverty reduction
Culture
Annex 6: OECD Work on SME Statistics: Policy and Indicators (PPT)
37
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS
Cairo SME Conference and Workshop

January 2008
Annex 6
Preamble:
An opinion
without data is just
another persons
opinion
OECD Work on SME

Statistics: Policy
and Indicators
Quote from A. Schleicher,

OECD, who conducted
the well-known PISA
study
Conference
Past, Present and Future:
SME Policy in Egypt
Cairo, January 15-17, 2008
Andreas Lindner OECD/STD/TAGS
Structure of this
presentation
1. What is the OECD?
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is and how works the OECD ?

Work on SMEs
Linking SBS and Trade
The OECD-Eurostat Enterpreneurship
Indicators Program
5. Business registers the key
6. PS: Impact of globalisation on statistics
An Organisation of 30 member countries

committed to democracy and the market
economy
A provider of comparative data, analysis
and forecasts
so that governments can:
- compare policy experiences
- seek answers to common problems
- identify good practice
- co-ordinate policies
OECD members, future members, and

EEPs
Global Partners
30 member countries
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRIA
BELGIUM
CANADA
CZECH REPUBLIC
DENMARK
FINLAND
FRANCE
GERMANY
GREECE
HUNGARY
ICELAND
IRELAND
ITALY
JAPAN
OECD member countries
Countries invited to
open talks on potential
membership
Countries to which OECD

is offering enhanced
engagement
38
KOREA
LUXEMBOURG
MEXICO
NETHERLANDS
NEW ZEALAND
NORWAY
POLAND
PORTUGAL
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
SPAIN
SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND
TURKEY
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES
Countries invited to
membership talks
CHILE
ESTONIA
ISRAEL
RUSSIA
SLOVENIA
Enhanced engagement
program (EEP)
BRAZIL
CHINA
INDIA
INDONESIA
SOUTH AFRICA
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
Who drives the OECDs

work?
The OECD mission
Council
Article 1 of the OECD Convention:

Q Support economic growth
Q Boost employment
Q Raise living standards
Q Maintain financial stability
Q Assist other countries economic
development
Q Contribute to growth in world
trade
Oversight and strategic direction

Representatives of member countries and of the European
Commission; decisions taken by consensus
Discussion and implementation
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
Q
Secretary-General
Deputy Secretaries-General
Directorates
Social cohesion
Analyse and publish comparative

data
Produce forecasts
Develop policies for growth and
stability
Foster open markets
Encourage expansion of financial
services
Promote cross-border investment
Share best practices
Governance
Q
Analysis and proposals
Representatives of member countries and of

invited non-Members work with the OECD
Secretariat on specific issues
Economics and trade

Q
Secretariat
Committees
Ensure equal access to education

for all
Promote effective and accessible
health systems
Fight social exclusion and
unemployment
Bridge the digital divide between
rich and poor
OECDs way of working
Promote effective public

administration
Encourage companies to run their
affairs better
Ensure transparent and fair tax
systems
Foster fair competition
Fight corruption and moneylaundering
Promote high ethical standards
Encourage citizen-participation in
policy-making
Data Collection
Analysis
Discussion
Decisions
Implementation
Peer reviews,
multilateral surveillance
39
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
2. The genesis of OECD work

on SMEs
The OECD Secretariat

Q
Two official languages: English and

French
A policy-driven
process
Stocktaking of
policy issues and
solutions
Stocktaking of
SME statistics
Staff members are international civil

servants
No quota system for national
representation
2.
3.
4.
5.
Second OECD Ministerial

Conference on Promoting
Entrepreneurship and
Innovative SMEs in a Global
Economy in ISTANBUL
on 3-5 June 2004,
2300 staff at Paris headquarter
15
The Istanbul Ministerial Declaration

contains the following Ministerial
Acknowledgement relating to Statistics:
The Istanbul Ministerial meeting

recommended for statistics:
1.
First OECD Conference for

Ministers responsible for
SMEs on "Enhancing the
Competitiveness of SMEs in
the Global Economy:
Strategies and Policies",
held in BOLOGNA on 1315 June 2000
Promote international convergence of

statistical concepts and processes
Foster greater international comparability of
statistics
Promote development of an integrated
business statistical register
Promote data linking to make better use of
existing data and reduce respondent burden
on SMEs
Carry out policy-relevant empirical analyses
to underpin evidence-based policy making
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS
invite the OECD to

considerdeveloping a robust and
comparable statistical base on which
SME policy can be developed. The
Action Plan emerging from the
Istanbul Conference Special
Workshop on SME Statistics
provides a good basis for this work
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS
16
OECD implemented the Istanbul

recommendations:
SMEs in OECD countries
Creation of the CFE (Centre for Entrepreneurship)

to steer the policy-process and liaise with OECD
Statistics Directorate
Creation of a Entrepreneurship Indicators Unit
and programme (EIP)
Staff increase for SBS statistics to further SME
data and to build up a Business Demography
database and indicators
Intensified work on Business Register design and
statistical system issues
Building up of an indicators programme, linking
SBS and Trade Statistics
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS
17
Comprehensive questionnaire sent out to OECD

NSOs as part of the Istanbul Meeting
Analysis of results, change in data collection,
linkage to policy and OECD agendas
Confirmation that SMEs are not known well
enough
But what could be done since we are talking
about > 90% of the business population?
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS
18
40
19
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
OECD survey: business frames

used for SME statistics
A forest of statistical units

The EU focus on enterprise can be considered
as a compromise taken in 1993 to accommodate
very different national practices
The system of international standardisation is
incoherent with respect to statistical units
EU terms need to be translated into world-wide
methodology
The legal dimension needs to be distinguished
from the economic dimension
The economic dimension is likely to become
more important
Half of countries reported use of

combination of different sources,
sometimes according to sectors and/or
size classes
Agriculture often the exception to the rule
(agr. = from statistical source)
Very different thresholds across countries
20
21
Identified limitations of Business

Frames for SBS:
The traceability issue

Ability to trace change through a unique
identifier code for the local unit/establishment
would allow to better capture unit activity and
de-registration
Similarly, the introduction of links between legal
units in enterprise groups and groups of
companies would enhance identification of
changes in size, ownership and location for units
involved in events such as mergers and splits
Different updating intervals limit comprehensive

coverage
A specific SME frame is the exception
Confidentiality issues limit availability of data for other
users/producers
General concern about quality and coverage of
demographic data, in particular for deaths
Difficulties were reported as to the proper allocation of
activities to industries
The quality of the Business Frame was generally
considered as appropriate, although improvements are
foreseen in many countries with respect to SMEs, change
of activity, legal status etc.
22
23
Council Regulation 696/93: 8 different

statistical units (legal, geographical,
activity criteria)
The statistical units mess

General impression: the same name does not
necessarily mean the same thing in another
country. True? Evidence suggests that this is the
case.
Is the enterprise vs. establishment split
meaningful? Why not calling it economic
statistical unit?
Despite Council Regulations, the situation in the
EU seems less harmonized than one might
assume
24
the Enterprise;
the Institutional Unit;
the Enterprise Group;
the Kind-of-activity Unit (KAU);
the Unit of Homogeneous Production (UHP);
the Local Unit;
the Local Kind-of-Activity Unit (local KAU);
the Local Unit of Homogeneous Production
(local UHP).
25
41
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
UN classification ISIC
The Canadian statistical structure:

Enterprise: the highest level of the hierarchy with
complete financial statements and information about
international links. An enterprise may have one or more
companies
Company: A somewhat homogeneous production
structure with balance sheets data. May have one or
more establishments.
Establishment: The most homogeneous production
level with economic key data (output, inputs, wages).
May have one or more location.
Location: A unique physical production unit.
the enterprise;
enterprise group;
kind-of-activity unit (KAU);
local unit;
establishment;
homogeneous unit of production.
26
27
Collection and compilation

strategies matter
A wealth of statistical units

The EU focus on enterprise can be considered
as a workable compromise taken in 1993 to
accommodate very different national practices
The system of international standardisation is
incoherent with respect to statistical units
EU terms need to be translated into world-wide
methodology
The legal dimension needs to be distinguished
from the economic dimension
The economic dimension is likely to become
more important
In only two countries, Germany and the US, the

NSO is not in charge of official statistics on
SMEs.
Almost all countries have different treatment for
core and specific statistics
Some countries have developed tools to monitor
the response burden. The strategy developed is
therefore to collect core variables through the
integration of census/surveys based data and
administrative data
28
29
Collection and compilation

strategies (2)
Data linkage with administrative

sources: access matters
Very different access patterns for NSOs to
individual records could be identified, ranging
from full to no access.
Where access to administrative and other sources
is partial, differences in the definition of
variables have been commonly seen as a
major impediment to the use of
administrative sources, different
observation units, classification and the
absence of a unique identification number
have also been mentioned.
Sometimes technical problems hinder access to
administrative sources. Countries generally have
identified the main sources they would like to
access
In the vast majority of countries the NSO is fully

in charge of data collection
In the remaining countries, the NSO plays an
important coordinating role (Germany is the
exception where the NSO has outsourced SME
data collection)
In the majority of countries, SME core statistics
are differentiated from specific SME variables.
The typical pattern is a reduced sample for core
data as opposed to often voluntary thematic
surveys
30
31
42
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
Access and linkage with

administrative sources
Access and linkage with

administrative sources (2)
In the case of access, but no usage, the
main reason were different basic units and
absence of links between registers and
administrative data
Similarly, the main impediments to a
better use of available data in the two
distinct sources were:
Different definitions of variables
No common identifier
Different classifications and thresholds
The picture regarding access of NSOs to

administrative SME data is mixed. Country
practice differs ranging from full access via partial
access to no access:
Although about 2/3 of responding countries state
that NSOs have full access, half of them reported
problems in uses or little practical experiences
Five countries reported only partial access
Japan and Switzerland reported that no access
was granted to NSOs
32
33
Enterprises with less than 20 employees,

manufacturing, 2005 or later
OECD SME examples:

In micro-based OECD economies the share of SME
employment is very significant (Italy, Spain, Portugal,
Australia, Korea, and others (see next slide)
These countries SMEs also generate significant value
added in manufacturing (+/- 20%), see slide 2
The sheer number of micro and small-medium
enterprises supports the argument for bottom-up
support measures instead of top-down
Coherent Sizeclasses cut-offs facilitate international
comparisons: o, 1-4, 5-9, 10-19, 20-49, 50-249,
250+ seem appropriate (see slide 3)
35
SMEs are an important part of

employment and generate a significant
% of Value Added
Enterprise distribution by size-class

in %
36
37
43
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
Why linking systems together?

The example of business statistics and
trade
3. Linking SBS and Trade

Another joint OECD-Eurostat project
OECD works with Non-EU OECD countries
to yield more global coverage
Annual review of progress at the
International WPTGS meetings in September
Steering group set up, comprising OECD
(chair), Unites States, Canada, Norway,
Israel, Eurostat
Global economies require data on who is trading

and what are the economic characteristics of
trade operators
This question requires establishing a direct
relation between foreign trade and industrial
statistics.
But these two statistical domains are based upon
different concepts (products versus economic
activities) and use different classifications (SITC,
HS, ISIC, CPC).
38
39
Why linking systems together?

The example of business statistics and
trade
The present situation (OECD

questionnaire result)
The situation in Non-EU countries of OECD can
be summarized as follows:
Six out of eight countries reported having a
trade register, only 1 country reported having a
formal trade register
How is the trade register updated? Customs
declarations provide the basis. In half of the
responses there is a link to the Business
Register and data from fiscal authorities is
used as well
Central issue of such an analysis is to try to

classify trade operators according to economic
enterprise characteristics
But this depends on the possibility of using or
developing common identifiers between the
trade register and the business register
Countries largely differ in their ability to
perform such a linking.
40
41
The present situation (contd)
An example: Who are the

Norwegian exporters?
Which is/are the unit(s) of reference in the

trade register(s)? Enterprises and
establishments constitute together with
legal units the reference units used.
Is there at least one common unit of reference
between the business register and customs
forms/register? All countries, except one,
reported yes.
Is (or can) the basic statistical unit of the
business register linked to customs forms/
register of traders? Almost all countries
reported that they can link the basic
statistical unit to customs forms/trade
registers
42
43
44
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
Norway: concentration of exports

by ISIC Sectors
Norway: SME trade is significant
Norway:
Concentration of exports (% ), by ISIC Sectors, 2003
92
90
% of total exports
60
60
57
72
59
C-E
5355
48
50
Others
39
38
40
Total
26
30
20
96
76
69
68
65
99
80
79
71
70
96
92
88
85
80
99
97
97
100
16
10
0
Top 5
44
68
% of total enterprises
54 54
60
50
C-E
39
40
Others
30
Total
16171416
20
9968
10
119
64
34
63
23
3212
10
2 24
Top 500
Top 100
Top 500
Top 1000
11
-1
3
pa
r tn
er
co
un
tri
pa
es
rtn
er
co
14
un
+
tri
pa
es
r tn
er
co
un
tr i
es
ou
nt
r ie
pa
rtn
er
c
810
es
ou
nt
r ie
pa
rtn
er
c
67
es
er
co
un
tri
45
er
co
un
tri
pa
rtn
3
pa
rtn
2
pa
r tn
er
co
un
try
46
Top 20
Determine export specialization patterns,

in particular for SMEs
Detecting niche markets
Identifying with whom and how many
other countries SMEs are trading
Give eventually policy advice and foster
enabling framework conditions for SMEs
based upon this evidence
and much more!
Number of enterprises according to number of partner

countries (exports), in % of total enterprises, 2003
70
45
The SBS-Trade linking allows much

more:
Norway: Number of enterprises by

number of partner country
80
Top 10
47
4. The OECD Eurostat

E(ntrepreneurship) I(ndicators)
P(rogram)
EntrepreneurshipMeasurement
Manual
Made possible through policy attention

obtained at the Istanbul Ministerial
Recognition of rubbish in, rubbish out
Kauffman Foundation approached OECD
And Danish consortium FORA joined in
Eurostat and OECD joined forces in 2007
45
Boring but essential
Core Definitions
Framework for understanding and developing
Indicators and data specifications
OECD-Eurostat Manual planned for 2008
A good start: the Eurostat-OECD Manual on

Business Demography Statistics (2007)
Data collection now underway by OECD & EU
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
EIPDefinitions
SomeImportantPrinciples
Entrepreneurs: those persons (business owners) who

seek to generate value, through the creation or
expansion of economic activity, by identifying and
exploiting new products, processes or markets.
Entrepreneurvs.Entrepreneurship
Notjustsmalloryoungfirms
Entrepreneurial activity: the enterprising human

action in pursuit of the generation of value, through
the creation or expansion of economic activity, by
identifying and exploiting new products, processes or
markets.
Notallfirmsareentrepreneurial
Theyaredoingsomethingnew
Someentrepreneursfail
Value canbedefinedindifferentways
Entrepreneurship is the phenomenon associated with

entrepreneurial activity.
Indicatorsfocusonbusinessentrepreneurship
DefinitionsandIndicators
EIPoffersbroaddefinitionofentrepreneurship
Nosinglemeasureperfectlyreflectsdefinition
Therefore..
Wemustdistinguishaspectsandtypesof
entrepreneurship
Employersvs.nonemployers
MeasuresofHighGrowthandGazelles
Innovativefirms
Exportingfirms
Company Growth
SubDividingEntrepreneurialFirms
High Growth
High-Growth
Replicators
Replicators
Low
LowGrowth
Growth
Replicators
Replicators
High-Growth
Innovators
Low Growth
Innovators
Degree of Innovation
Forexample.
The entrepreneurial process
More information on EIP at OECD: Tim Davis,

OECD
tim.davies@oecd.org
More information on Business Demography at
OECD:
Nadim Ahmad, OECD
nadim.ahmad@oecd.org
More information on SME statistics at OECD:
Benot Arnaud
benoit.arnaud@oecd.org
Determinants -> Performance -> Impact
See Eurostat presentation on the

EIP subject
54
55
46
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
Business Registers are key for

SME data
5. Business Registers
will become more and more key for managing
the increasing complex statistical systems in a
resource-effective and efficient way
Are a pre-condition for finding answers to the
SME segment of an economy, which
because the SME population is too large for

direct surveying (except special sample surveys)
SME Entrepreneurs struggle for economic
survival and hate any statistical response burden
rightly can suspect that much of the requested
information exists already somewhere
A coherent BR System could answer most, if not
all, of the needed information and should be
considered a priority for an efficient and effective
national statistics system
Can not be surveyed in its entirety

Is key for job growth
Has no statistical education and cannot answer or
does not want answering to statistical questions
Needs to know where they stand in comparison to
competitors and internationally
57
A system of statistical registers

OECD will host the next meeting
of the international Wiesbaden
Group on Business Registers
22-24 November 2008
59
Integrated register design: an example of

good practice - The Netherlands
Business Registers (the red box) are the

backbone of a statistical system
(excerpt of the Statistics Netherlands

presentation to the Wiesbaden Group)
Business registers include:

Enterprise registers (name, activity, ID..)
VAT registers
Income declarations
Accounts data
Foreign Trade register
Farm register
Patent register, etc.
Business survey frames specialists design the

national statistical inquiry system
The Business Register in relation to
changed Data Collection Strategies is currently
the hot topic
The Wiesbaden Group on Business Survey
Frames analyses and shares progress
60
61
47
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
Dutch data collection strategy (1)
Dutch data collection strategy (2)

Differentiation according strata by size and complexity of
enterprises
1. Use of administrative data (if available)

2. Self administered reporting
1. Large and complex enterprises (1%): tailor-made and

co-ordinated data collection
Electronic questionnaires
Internet
E-mail
Other media (e.g. CD-Rom)
2. Small enterprises (90%): use of administrative data.

Data collection by survey should be avoided
Paper questionnaires
3. Medium sized enterprises (9%): mixed mode; optimal

combination of the use of administrative data and data
collection by survey
4. Holiday period for surveyed entity!
3. (CA)TI: (Computer assisted) telephone

Interviewing
4. (CA)PI: (Computer assisted) personal
interviewing
Wiesbaden, October 23, 2007
62
Dutch data collection modes
Dutch register developments
Joined data collection in co-operation with other

data collecting organisations: once questioned,
End nineties: introduction of the single administrative

business register, initially operated as a unit reference
system for some administrative systems (tax, chambers
of commerce, statistics, social security)
multiple used.
-> negotiations on definitions (units and

variables)
(e.g. chambers of commerce, business
associations)
In 2008 the introduction of the new trade register (NHR)

as the single exhaustive administrative business register.
The authentic variables (e.g. identification number) must
be used (by law) in all official registers.
New data collection techniques and procedures > e.g. XBRL (extensible business reporting
language)
63
Statistics Netherlands has full and free access to registers

containing data useful for statistical purposes (regulated
in the Dutch law on statistics)
64
65
Another example of good practice:

Germany
Could we learn from this

experience ?
(excerpt of Germanys FSO presentation to the Wiesbaden
Yes. Integration and resource-efficiency,

coupled with a lowest possible burden on
respondents are the new Dutch model
but such an approach may be more
difficult the bigger the country
and also raise legal/confidentiality issues
as to the full access of the NSO in other
countries
Group
Conception phase precedes data collection

Analysis precedes dissemination
Metadata is an integral part of the whole process
The Business Register is a coherent system of
business registers
capable to link multi-sources and
capable of allowing multi-uses depending on
the questions to be answered
66
48
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
The New German Business Register in

the statistical production process
Present situation of business statistics
meta data
conception
phase
data
collection
data
processing
survey 2
dissemination
of results
analysis
survey 5
survey 1
survey 4
?
survey 6
survey 3
business register
68
69
The statistical business register as an instrument for data combination
The new German maxim for business statistics

survey 3
survey 5
survey 4
survey 6
survey 2
administrative data 1
administrative data
in the business
register
register information
about survey
participation
1
core of
business register
administrative
data 3
survey 1
su
sta rvey
tis da
tic
al ta of
off
ice the
ad
us min
off ed b istra
ice y t tive
he
sta data
tis alr
tic
al ead
administrative data 2
3
4
register unit
statistical business register

data available in the statistical office
5
-e
.g e.g
.t
ur . VA
no
T
ve
r
()
su
sta rve
tis y da
tic ta
al
of of th
fic
e e
ad
da min
bu ta in istr
sin th ativ
e
es e
sr
eg
ist
er
co
bu re o
sin f
es
sr
eg
ist
er
re
g
ab ist
pa out er in
rti su fo
cip rv rm
at ey ati
ion
on
ad
da min
ta ist
ra
ti
ve
Data combination of a register unit
reg
su iste
rve r in
y p for
art ma
icip tio
atio n a
su
n bou
st a r ve y
t
data of scientific
institutions
administrative
data
core of
business register
-e
-e
-e
-e -e -z
-s
-e
.B
.g
.g e.g bu
ad e.g. .g.
.g .g
ur
.g
.
.t
.i .l
.
s
ve
m la lab . ta
.t
nv ea ex
ur leg ine
in b
ur
y
x
p
no
es si
al
ss
is ou ou
I
no
D
ra
tra r
ID
tm ng orts
ve
fo
r
v
er
dm
rm eg
r
tio
e
nt
is
fr
n
in
t
o
er
em
is
m
tra
ID
su
pl
tio
oy
rv
n
ee
ey
s
ID
data of
chambers of
commerce
tis da
tic ta
el
off of th
ice e
ad
bu mi
sin nis
es tra
s tiv
re e
gis da
te ta
r
in
administrative
data
accounting
data of
enterprises
administrative
data
data of market
research
institutes
he
adm
use inistrati
d by
v
the e data
a
stati
stic lready
al o
ffice
local unit
enterprise 2
enterprise 1
data available in the statistical office
49
statistical business register
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
Contact information:
Business Registers and Statistical System:
Business and Trade Statistics:
SBS and Trade Linkages:
Globalisation Indicators:
Andreas Lindner Andreas.lindner@oecd.org
Trade Indicators & Business and Trade
Statistics:
Florian Eberth florian.eberth@oecd.org
Thank you very much for your

attention!
Questions?
74
75
Postscriptum The impact of

globalisation on statistical
units/definitions
How globalisation affects

statistics
One of the most visible manifestations of a more

globalised world is trade. The remarkable
growth of trade flows is undisputable, in
particular for emerging major players (see next
slide)
But, as can be seen from the remarks later under
Linking systems together, even trade and
business statistics are rather separate entities
needing reconciliation/standardisation
A postscriptum
77
Relative growth of exports of goods

Growth over the period 1996-2005,
OECD total = 1
The impact of globalisation on

statistical units/definitions (contd)
The real problem is that statistical systems
have been overtaken by the speed of
globalisation obliging national reporting
systems and structures to align to this
paradigm shift
In other words, national concepts need
to incorporate the international dimension
to adequately reflect the reality of todays
production process
78
79
50
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008
Statistical units/definitions were

more or less in tune
but they went out of tune
Administrative & legal system

Statistical System
Economic System
Administrative & legal system

Statistical System
Economic System
80
81
As a consequence, both
Administrative & Legal and
Statistical Systems
A new statistical unit is needed: the

Enterprise Group (EG)
EU definition:
Need to adapt to (=better integrate) the new

reality
where the production process is international,
with more complex structures/processes exist
(outsourcing, flatter vertical integration)
and where control and ownership become
more dominant features than legal forms
An enterprise group is an association of enterprises

bound together by legal and/or financial links. A
group of enterprises can have more than one
decision-making centre, especially for policy on
production, sales and profit. It may centralize certain
aspects of financial management and taxation.
It constitutes an economic entity which is empowered
to make choices, particularly concerning the units
which it comprises.
EUROSTAT is actively working on the EG Register
82
83
EGs and EG-sub-groups: a scenario

based upon real data

The economic picture of a country

crucially depends on the degree of
inclusion or exclusion of statistical units
Some conclusions:
INSEE, the French NSO, will use this report for defining
procedures to incorporate enterprise groups in the
collection system of economic statistics
An affiliate is no longer considered as an equivalent ot an
enterprise unit
An affiliate can not be considered as enterprise (lack of
autonomy)
A MNE has to be considered globally (an MNE and its
branches think and define themselves globally)
Many economic actors consider the EG (or sub-group of
it) as the relevant unit of analysis
Users want to analyse market realities, not hierarchical
structures within EGs
France has launched in 2005 a major highlevel project of re-designing its enterprise
statistics system
This project was carried out by the CNIS, the
National Council for Statistical Information
In April 2007, the final report was presented
84
85
51
Andreas Lindner
OECD/STD/TAGS

January 2008


The CNIS recommends the addition of a Global

Statistical Unit (GSU) for EGs
It is at this level where the strategic direction
and decisions on affiliates are taken (mergers,
acquisitions, investment, relocations etc,)
This GSU is independent of national frontiers
This logic of definition leads to a statistical
representation of the national economy as the
sum of all French GSUs world-wide
This approach is innovative in macro

economic statistics since it goes
systematically beyond the national
territory (to our knowledge, only the BEA
in the US has a similar approach)
Most traditional economic statistics take
the national approach in terms of national
territory
86
87
Simulation done by the CNIS in

France
France
(A)Foreigncontrolled
Companies
2M

France
Truncated Global Statistical Unit (GSU):
World
(B)Legally
Independant
Companies
6,3 M
(C)French
Groups
2,1 M
(D) International French Groups:
Df = 4,2 M
Dw = 3,6 M
A+B+C+Df = 14,6 million salaried employees
French truncated GSU
B+C+Df = 12,6 million salaried employees

88
89
International production processes

necessitate a fresh look at international
trading and contracting

France
World-wide French GSU:
More an better data needed on re-exports

More and better data needed on further
processing and merchanting
FATS => inward FATS alongside SBS needed,
idem for a reduced set of outward FATS data
(more difficult)
MNEs => consistent definition of EGs needed
and integration into registers
B + C + Df + Dw = 16,2 million salaried employed
A world-wide French measurement,

including the activities abroad from French
EGs would yield 16,2 million employees,
compared to 14,6 million in the territorial
view; a plus of 1,6 millions
Profiling of domestic operations needed

Difficulty: consolidation/deconsolidation of financial
results of EGs
90
91
52

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"SME Data Workshop": Cairo Sheraton Hotel January 17, 2008

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SME Data Workshop

Cairo Sheraton Hotel

Small and Medium Enterprise Policy (SMEPol)

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

Policy demand is the driver behind the SME Statistics Program.

SME Data Workshop Report

A: Opening remarks and introductions

B: Workshop Session 1: The Statistics Canada SME Statistics Program

No standard definition for SMEs, so unable to create a comprehensive picture of SMEs

challenge of reaching consensus on a definition (i.e. whether to use employment or

objectives based on producing an annual base of statistics to support policy development

Policy demand is the driver behind the SME Statistics Program.

C: Workshop Session 2: European Statistics on SMEs, business demography and

Workshop leader 2: Dr. Axel Behrens, Head of the Development and

D: Workshop Session 3: OECD work on SME statistics: policy and indicators

E: Concluding panel session:

SME Data Workshop

Registration and welcome refreshments

business demography as part of the new Regulation for structural business

Lunch and networking

Annex 2: List of participants

Name & Title

Ahmed Said Morsy Ahmed ,

Dorreya Abbass Mohamed

Hanaa Abd El Hady Abd

4. Egyptian Center for

Dr. Nihal El-Megharbel ,

Dr. Axel Behrens,

7. General Authority for

8. General Authority for

10. Information and Decision

Dr. Sohair El Sherif,

11. Information and Decision

Dr. Ashraf Shaheen,

12. International Development

13. Ministry of Finance

Dr. Mohamed Soruor,

14. Ministry of Finance/

17. Ministry of Investment

18. Ministry of Trade &

20. Ministry of Trade &

Nesma Mostafa Abass,

Doaa Abdel Salam Mahram,

28. Social Fund for

Emil Michelle George,

29. Social Fund for

Maha Osama Mehanna,

30. Social Fund for

Samir Amin Abdel Hamid,

31. Statistics Canada

Annex 3: International presenters

Annex 4: SME Statistics Program, Statistics Canada (PPT)

Small Business and Special Surveys

Strong interest in SMEs because of contribution to

Policy areas demanding detailed / high quality SME data to

Conference Past, Present and Future: SMEPOLicy in Egypt

Industry Canada, Canadian Federation of Independent Business,

International Ministerial support for the development of

Unable to create a comprehensive picture of SMEs in Canada

Adopt standard size groups based on employment

Users dont know what data STC has on SMEs; how /