On 15-16 March 2018, the OECD will organise a second workshop on business statistics in Armenia, which will focus on concepts and methods for producing business demography indicators, and on SME financing statistics. The workshop will be held in Yerevan in the framework of the EU-funded project on ‘Improving Business Statistics in Armenia’, part of the EU4Business: From Policies to Action programme, implemented by the OECD.
On the first day, the workshop will discuss issues concerning the definition of small and medium-sized enterprises for statistical and policy purposes, and will introduce the development of new business indicators based on linking of different datasets. The workshop will be structured in three sessions:
•Session 1: Issues of SME definition. The issues of SME definition for statistical and policy purposes will be addressed.
•Session 2i: Business demography statistics analysis and policy. The analysis of demographic business statistics will be presented.
•Session 2ii: Business demography statistics, statistical concepts and compilation. The indicators of birth, death, survival rate and growth of enterprises will be explained.
•Session 3: New approaches to statistical production, linking datasets. Business indicators based on linked data will be showcased.
On the second day, the workshop will focus on the methodology to compile key indicators for producing SME financing statistics. The OECD has developed a Scoreboard on Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs to document the state of access to finance for entrepreneurs and SMEs and to monitor annually SME financing trends in 39 OECD and non-OECD countries, along with government responses to foster better access to finance. The Scoreboard covers indicators of debt and non-debt finance, and general finance conditions complemented by an overview of the latest government policy measures. The workshop will be structured as follows:
- Session 1: Introduction to the OECD Scoreboard on SME and entrepreneurship financing. Rationale and benefits will be explained and the examples of results and analysis will be shared.
- Session 2: OECD Scoreboard Indicators. An overview of the indicators and definitions used in the Scoreboard will be presented. Data sources, frequency, data comparability and shortcomings will be discussed.
- Session 3: Good practices on data collection and SME finance. Survey data (both demand-side and supply-side), as well as data from the banking sector will be showcased. The way to increase granularity of data collected (e.g. size of firm, age, form of ownership etc.) will be presented.
Project context
The need to enhance the quality of SME statistics has been highlighted by the latest Small Business Act for Europe (SBA) assessment as a main priority to improve monitoring and evaluation of SME policies in Armenia. Building on this finding, and with a view to improve the design, monitoring and evaluation of its policies to support the SME Sector, the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia has requested OECD assistance to improve its capacity to collect, harmonise, analyse and disseminate official business statistics, in particular with regards to structural and demographic statistics to measure SME performance.
Project objectives
The overall objective of the project is to build capacity in Armenian institutions to collect, harmonise, analyse, publish and disseminate official business statistics. In order to meet this objective, the project will concentrate on the following activities:
- Strengthened statistical co-operation across relevant state bodies through a series of capacity building workshops;
- Development of a methodology to harmonise the production of SME statistics, and the selection of relevant indicators to measure SME performance;
- Support in the preparation of annual SME statistics report.
Date
15-16/03/2018