The Statistics Advisory Board reviewed the main lines of government statistical work and its recent developments at a regular meeting on May 25.

The Statistics Advisory Board is a non-statutory advisory body which advises the Commissioner for Census and Statistics on matters pertaining to official statistics work.

"The Statistics Advisory Board meets regularly and provides very useful advice on government statistical work," said Mr Frederick Ho, Commissioner for Census and Statistics and Chairman of the Statistics Advisory Board.

"We will continue to inform the public from time to time of the major issues discussed by the Board."

The Board also considered several specific items at the meeting. These included Balance of Payments and related statistics; compilation of the production-based Gross Domestic Product; latest developments in sectoral economic statistics; and implications of IT developments for official statistics work.

An Outline of Statistical Development in 2000

The Board reviewed the statistical activities and developments undertaken by the Government Statistical Service. The Government Statistical Service comprised the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) and statistical units established in various government departments and policy bureaux. The following were some of the important items covered in the general discussion:

* All business items and related computer systems in the C&SD had successfully rolled over to the millennium. This had been the result of thorough planning and preparation in mitigating the risk of Y2K-induced failures. The C&SD would continue its efforts towards ensuring the compliance of the systems in subsequent months when statistical data relating to the year 2000 were collected and processed for the first time.

* Preparatory work for the 2001 Population Census was in full swing. A small-scale test survey was conducted in June to September 1999 to test the new and revised questions to be used in the Census. Another pre-test survey, larger in scale, was implemented in March 2000 to test the operational arrangements and the questionnaire design. Computer systems were being developed to support the Census operation. New technologies, which would help increase the efficiency of the operation and improve the dissemination of the Census results, would be adopted in various aspects. These included the application of digital maps, the use of high speed machine to capture and recognize data with the aid of optical technology and the dissemination of statistics via electronic means. As regards the enactment of the Census Order for conducting the 2001 Population Census, the draft Census Order had been approved by the Chief Executive in Council and submitted to the Legislative Council.

* Based on data collected from the Programme of Annual Economic Surveys, statistics on research and development activities in the business sector of Hong Kong for 1995 to 1997 had been compiled and released through a feature article in the February 2000 issue of the Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics. Meanwhile, the C&SD was planning to collect research and development data from both academic institutions and Government departments so as to obtain a full picture of research and development spending in Hong Kong.

* On labour statistics, the C&SD was conducting a Household Survey on Employment Concerns and Training needs and a Survey on Manpower Training and Job Skills Requirements in the Business Sector. Results of the two surveys, covering the views of both the employees and employers, were expected to be available in July 2000. They would provide useful information to the Government for formulation of manpower training policy arising from the structural changes of the economy with particular regard to the probable impact of China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

* The timeliness of releasing a number of statistical series had been enhanced starting from 2000. The more noteworthy one was quarterly Gross Domestic Product, which had been released with a time lag of 1.8 months as from the first quarter of 2000, compared with 2.7 months in 1999. Moreover, there had been significant advances in the release of the survey results of the Programme of Annual Economic Surveys, ranging from over one month to three months.

Balance of Payments and Related Statistics

The Board appreciated the effort of the C&SD in the development of Balance of Payments (BoP) and related statistics, which would help underpin Hong Kong's position as an international trading and financial centre.

Board members noted that the first set of complete BoP account with detailed estimates for the capital and financial account components would be available for 1998 and the four quarters of 1999 (hence also for 1999 as a whole) in June this year. The compilation of a complete BoP account was an important move towards fully meeting the Special Data Dissemination Standard promulgated by the International Monetary Fund.

Members also noted the developments of other related statistics compiled under the BoP statistics framework. These included the release of the first set of quarterly Gross National Product statistics for the first quarter of 1999 in December 1999 and the release of the first complete set of external direct investment statistics for 1998 in March 2000, encompassing both the stock and flow of inward and outward direct investments.

Moreover, they were aware of C&SD's plans for compiling and disseminating statistics on International Investment Position and External Debt, which helped further enhance transparency with regard to external financial statistics.

Compilation of the Production-based Gross Domestic Product

At present, annual production-based Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices were compiled and published based on data collected from the Programme of Annual Economic Surveys. With the availability of short term indicators for various industries and the developments in the compilation of producer price indices and output related data for major industries, the C&SD planned to set up a statistical system to compile quarterly production-based GDP at current and constant prices and annual production-based GDP at constant prices.

Board members discussed the plans, which included the general methodology and data sources used in the compilation of the constant price production-based GDP. They welcomed the plans and advised that such data were important to facilitate analysis of industry composition of economic growth and productivity trends in industries.

Latest Developments in Sectoral Economic Statistics

The Board was updated with the recent developments in sectoral economic statistics. The more noteworthy developments included:

(i)	release of retail sales statistics for more detailed business categories and plans to release value (as against only value indices) of retail sales by type of retail outlet, both aiming to facilitate better analysis of the performance of the retail industry;
(ii)	collection of data on electronic commerce to track its development and impact on Hong Kong's economy;
(iii)	plans to compile a pilot Tourism Satellite Account to help gauge the contribution of tourism to Gross Domestic Product; and
(iv)	release of Producer Price Index of selected service industries, such as telecommunications and miscellaneous communication service industries, to facilitate monitoring of the output prices of the industries concerned.

Board members supported the effort placed in developing services statistics which was in line with the economic transformation of Hong Kong. They advised that these sectoral economic statistics were not only very important to the Government in making macro-economic analysis and formulating policies, but also useful to the private sector in formulating business strategies and making decisions.

Implications of IT Developments for Official Statistics Work

Board members were glad to note the wide application of information technologies by the C&SD in various parts of statistics work, including data collection; data processing, compilation and analysis; and dissemination of statistics.

In particular, they were pleased with C&SD's employment of the latest information technologies in lifting its productivity and more effectively meeting the increasing aspirations of the data users. Examples of such IT applications included the acceptance of completed questionnaires submitted in electronic form in regard to survey data collection following the enactment of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance; the introduction of on-line analytical processing technology to survey data processing work; and the continual enhancement of the content of C&SD's website in statistics dissemination.