Pretoria - Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) will this year explore the implementation of two international standards, so as to remain valid in a changing global context, Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission, Trevor Manuel, said on Wednesday.
“For South African statistics to remain valid in a changing global context, the next challenge for economic statistics will depend on their ability to ensure that their classification systems remain relevant and current,” said the minister as he delivered the Stats SA budget vote in Parliament.
The first to be implemented is the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA).
“At present, South Africa's national accounts and therefore its economic statistics are estimated according to the 1993 SNA, the international framework. The new SNA was developed by the IMF, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank and adopted by the United Nations Statistics Commission to ensure that economic statistics keep track of new economic phenomena that have become important in economies in the last 20 years.
“An example of this is the need to quantify the value of research and development and include it in estimates of value added in the economy,” explained Manuel.
The second set of international standards is the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) that is used by statisticians to divide the economy into different industries such as agriculture, mining and transport according to an agreed standard.
The ISIC was updated to version 4 in order to identify and emphasize new aspects of economic activity that have become important, especially in the services sector.
“Ideally, these two standards should be implemented simultaneously and Stats SA is faced with the challenge to ensure that they continue to measure the dynamics of the economy accurately, while ensuring that our ability to compare with our international counterparts in OECD, BRICS and other trading partners does not become compromised,” he added.
Census 2011
The minister further praised Stats SA -- which has the responsibility of ensuring that the necessary statistics are available, verifiable and that they meet internationally set standards -- for the good work done in conducting and releasing the results of Census 2011.
“Despite the ease of use and the level of detail availing all of this data… appears insufficient to spark curiosity or interest from legislators, policy makers or the public. It is this that Parliament must take a view of because once the data is available, it is no longer a Stats SA responsibility but is over all of us who care.”
Over the course of the Census, conducted in October 2011, 14 million households were visited and the results released on 30 October 2012 showed that the population had swelled to 51.7 million in 2011.
Additionally, it was imperative to maintain public trust in Stats SA.
“There will be a continued focus on improving the output of a range of equally important datasets that concentrate on the changing demographic profile,” said Manuel.
Stats in education
Stats SA remains committed to building statistical skills.
“A scarcity of maths and science skills in this context must be understood in terms of its impact not only on the human resource challenges faced by Stats SA directly, but more significantly in terms of the impact on statistical collection and processing by other organs of state.”
“Stats SA is committed to build statistical skills throughout our country by developing a statistical curriculum that has been incorporated into the maths curriculum at schools,” explained the minister. - SAnews.gov.za
