News / 2002 Progress Report Statistics Chapter
_______________________________________________________________________

Chapter 12: Statistics

a) Progress Accomplished Since The Last Regular Report

The main elements of the harmonisation process in the area of statistics are: methodology, definitions, classifications, and standards rather than laws and regulations.

It is obvious that this kind of harmonisation especially require financial support. In order to fulfil this need, joined efforts of EUROSTAT and State Institute of Statistics of Turkey (SIS) resulted in a cooperation strategy for Turkey which is to be financed by 2001 MEDA-II Annual Financing Program. The Statistical Cooperation Program, named as "Upgrading the Turkish Statistical System", was developed in November 2001. The Financing Agreement for this Program, which amounts to EURO 15.3 million is expected to be signed by the end of 2002.

Administrative Capacity

Within this context, A "Project Implementation Team" (PIT) was set up with a project director from SIS, together with three project coordinators. It will also include one long-term EU adviser, one secretary and an accountant. The Project Implementation Team has just prepared the first draft of "Terms of Reference". The timetable of the tendering has been set up. In line with this timetable, the choice of contractors will take place in July 2002. Now, the team is working on the Supply Tender. The Procurement Notice for Supply Tender is put on the web site of EU Commission Representation in Turkey.

Moreover, a global assessment exercise (by a joint mandate by EUROSTAT and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - UNECE) was carried out at the SIS in two phases. The first visit was on 27 February - 5 March 2002 and second was during 15 -19 April 2002. The final report of the missions will be ready by the mid-June 2002. This report will certainly be a basis for invaluable insights for SIS to see strengths and weaknesses of Turkish Statistical System. Thus, it will be one of the reference papers for the later works.

b) What Remains to Be Done

As a general legal infrastructure, the process of drafting the new statistical law (to replace the Law no. 53 and Decree Law No. 219) by SIS is at the final stage. The SIS is well aware of the fact that the new draft should not only be presented to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) as soon as possible, but also, should cover the EU requirements for a modern statistical legislation. Therefore, it intends to revise nearly all aspects, which are currently not in line with the EU norms. This law will increase the coordinating role of the SIS within the whole system, introduce multi-annual planning, strengthen the role of the High Supreme Council (for Statistics) improve the autonomy of the SIS, guarantee easy and equal access to statistical information, regulate statistical confidentiality and clarify the contradicting or overlapping fields in statistics, as the Law of Central Bank. The Draft Law is expected to be submitted to the TGNA before the end of this year.

Regarding the Classifications, plans for gradual change in the classification infrastructure of SIS are prepared. The adoption of the most important EU classification in the field of economic statistics - the NACE and the CPA - is planned in connection with the General Census of Industry and Establishments in 2003. For field implementation, questionnaires and surveys are designed in compliance with the EU norms in this Census.

Concerning Regional Classification, the SIS has presented to EUROSTAT a proposal for a classification of regional units for statistics according to NUTS criteria. The proposal was accepted by EUROSTAT. The next stage will be its submission to the Council of Ministers for approval. In addition to this, there is a project for establishing a regional database within the SIS, which will be implemented between 2003 and 2004.

For Demographic and Social Statistics, SIS processes the results of 2000 General Population Census. The preliminary results have been published by the end of 2001. SIS is currently publishing detailed results for every province. The dissemination of all final results are to be completed by September 2002. Another set of studies on population and other demographic surveys that will be conducted in the inter-census period are planned to be completed by the end of 2002.

As regards National Accounts, a master plan was designed in summer 2001 for the implementation of the ESA 95. The base year of national accounts, which mainly depends on estimation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by production, expenditure and income approaches will be changed from 1987 to 1996. The implementation procedure will be based on ESA 95 standards and norms. It is expected that this procedure will be finalised by December 2002. The works for 1996 Input-Output Table based on SNA-93 was already finished. The revision of this table is still underway. 1998 Input-Output Table will be prepared according to the ISIC Rev.3 and NACE Rev.1. It is supposed to be finalised by the mid-2003. New studies have been started on General Government Accounts by Ministry of Finance. New budget code system, which is based on Government Finance Statistics (GFS) and Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) have been established in May 2001. The new accrual based accounting system and budget classification will be used in consolidated budgetary agencies in 2003 and it will be extended to all other general government units in 2004.

For the Consumer Price Index (CPI) SIS has decided to revise baskets and weights of its National Consumer Price Index. The new CPI and Household Income and Consumption Price (HICP) will be based on new Household Income and Consumption Expenditure Survey that is still conducted since the beginning of 2002. The data of this survey will be used as the source data for HICP. In order to reflect current weighting structure, weights will be examined every year and, if needed, will be updated.

In Foreign Trade Statistics, an agreement will be reached with the Customs Administration, which will transmit their data to SIS containing EU Customs Procedures Codes, beginning from July 2002. The Customs Administration has agreed to use country codes according to GEONOM by the beginning of 2002.

Since the beginning of 2002, short-term surveys in the industrial sector are in conformity with the relevant EU regulations and PRODCOM.

Administrative Capacity

For establishing a Business Register, SIS has launched the project of unique statistical business register, which will be based on the 2003 General Census of Industry and Establishments, with annual updates based on statistical surveys and administrative information coming from the Ministry of Finance. Works for reviewing the existing administrative sources and related registers continue a Register Inventory Study was conducted in May 2001. Moreover, a field survey has been launched in July 2001 in Bartưn province in order to check the recorded data in regional branches of Ministry of Finance. Discussions with this Ministry go on for easy access to their tax registers.

In Agricultural Statistics, SIS conducted General Agriculture Census in 2001. The methodology of the census followed the FAO and EU recommendations. The final results are being prepared in order to be published in September 2002. It will provide a wealth of information on the detailed structure of agriculture in Turkey. The SIS also conducted the Agricultural Holding Survey under the coverage of the 2001 census beginning by May and ending by October 2001. Data for 64 characteristics, similar to the characteristics of the EU Farm Structure Surveys were utilised. Moreover, the SIS is currently developing the project of a farm register that will be updated on an annual basis. The list of agricultural holdings, made on the occasion of the census and the project of farm register will provide a significant improvement in the quality of agricultural statistics as recommended by European standards.

In addition to the SIS's individual efforts to comply with EU standards and norms on the main statistical domains, the aforementioned Statistical Cooperation Programme, that will be implemented by the SIS on the coming 3 years, aims at creating fundamentals for sustainability in the compliance and harmonization process. The project targets the priority areas such as business register system, business statistics, IT system, agricultural statistics, regional statistics, data dissemination, and classification server etc. Completion of the project will contribute to an increased know-how level of the SIS staff on statistical standards methods, indicators, timely and more complete business statistics according to EU standards, improved and largely comparable agricultural statistics, improved regional statistics and indicators according to NUTS classifications, improved quality of information and indicators in a selected number of other statistical areas and better availability of and faster access to statistical information.

Administrative Capacity

In order to render the process of adopting the statistics acquis more effective, 8 main Working Groups and nearly 40 sub-working groups have been set up, mandated to analyse, compare and decide on the technical aspects of the harmonisation works within the SIS. These groups included experts from all SIS departments as well as participants from 25 other public institutions.

The SIS has developed a "compliance database." All departments of the Institute are obliged to enter data to this data base regarding their harmonisation activities.

As another dimension of statistical cooperation, SIS actively participates in the MEDSTAT programs. A series of simultaneous projects, within the auspices of the Institute are implemented and coordinated by the SIS under the Euro-Mediterranean Statistical Cooperation Program (MEDSTAT) since it was launched. SIS undertakes an effective role in the implementation of the projects' activities, and takes responsibility also as an institution providing training to the partner countries. 6 MEDSTAT training activities were organised by the SIS in Turkey.