Businesses urged to share data

Director General of the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) Carol Coy has appealed to business operators to share information about their operations with the agency. She said that this would better inform policy decisions from which businesses stand to benefit.

Addressing yesterday’s launch of the 2018 Jamaica Survey of Establishments at the AC Marriott, New Kingston, Coy gave the assurance that any information shared would be treated in the strictest confidence.

“We want to appeal to those businesspersons who are averse to giving their data to the institute. It is through your sharing of the information that we will be able to provide meaningful statistics that will help to inform not only government policies and programmes, but also the strategic decision that you make as you seek to grow your businesses,” she urged.

Coy told business interests that the information they provide is protected by the Statistics Act and is published in aggregated format.

Conducted by STATIN, with funding from the World Bank, through the Foundations for Competitiveness and Growth Project, the Survey of Establishments is the first of its kind in Jamaica, providing baseline data on the number and distribution of economic units operating in Jamaica. It arose out of the need for a wider range of business statistics to assess the impact overtime of government policies.

The survey was conducted between July and December 2018 and targeted establishments that employed three or more persons on a continuous basis, as well as doctor, dentist, and lawyer offices, irrespective of size.

Agricultural enterprises are excluded from the survey, which does not provide data on the financial or other aspects of establishment performance.

Richard Pandohie, chief executive officer of the Seprod Group, who has long advocated for businesses to share data, has welcomed the initiative as a step in the right direction.

“It sounds exactly like what I’ve long advocated for,” he told The Gleaner by telephone. “There is a high level of informality in the Jamaican economy. We think maybe 45 per cent is informal, and until we start getting people to come into the formal process so we can start measuring and understanding the value of data in guiding policy direction, we’re going to have a problem. So we welcome this initiative.”