February 27, 2012 New York. Minutes of Meeting. 1 Opening remarks, adoption of the agenda and approval of the minutes of last meeting

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1 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized 6 th ICP 2011 Executive Board Meeting February 27, 2012 New York Minutes of Meeting The sixth meeting of the ICP 2011 Executive Board took place on February 27, 2012, at UN Millennium Plaza Hotel in New York, New York. The attached agenda is included in Annex 1. In attendance were Board members, observers, and ICP Global Office staff as listed in the attached list of participants (Annex 2). 1 Opening remarks, adoption of the agenda and approval of the minutes of last meeting Enrico Giovannini, Chair of the Executive Board, welcomed the Board members, and explained that it is a good opportunity to meet around the 43rd session of the UNSC to take stock of the progress made since October He informed the Board that this meeting is intended as an information session, and that there are no burning issues and no required actions. The Chair made note of the progress made by the Global Office and informed the Board that the next status report is expected in June Shaida Badiee, Director, World Bank Development Data Group, went over some housekeeping arrangements, and thanked Board members for their participation and contribution. The Chair invited members to adopt the agenda and the minutes from the fifth meeting of the Executive Board held in October 2011 in Washington DC. Both documents were adopted by the Board without any changes. 2 Progress in the implementation of the 2011 ICP Michel Mouyelo-Katoula, ICP Global Manager, provided a brief status report on the implementation of the program, covering six main areas: (1) implementation of Board decisions; (2) country participation; (3) data and metadata submission; (4) risk assessment; (5) capacity building and outreach material; and (6) upcoming 2012 governance meetings. Additional updates on country participation were provided by delegates from the Regional Coordinating agencies: The ECLAC delegate noted that 17 instead of 18 countries might participate, as Argentina has not expressed interest in re-joining the program. He pointed out that thanks

2 to the Global Office s timely reaction and assistance in provision of financial and technical support, all 21 small island countries in the Caribbean are on board. The AfDB delegate informed the Board that Angola is now fully on board with the ICP whereas Libya and Eritrea are not. He also raised the issue of the splitting of Sudan into two countries which may require specific operational and computation arrangements to be made and assistance to be provided to effectively accommodate both countries in the final results. Also, commenting on risk assessments, he confirmed that the funding problem previously facing Africa is now resolved. However, concerns regarding the sustainability of the existing funding arrangements and processes in the region were expressed. He noted that the means for mobilizing resources in Africa are much more limited in comparison to other continents and regions and that it is not sustainable to have one institution funding the entire continent. The delegate from South Africa suggested that small island countries require special attention as their populations are small and sparse. The ESCWA delegate confirmed that Lebanon and Syria remain at risk of not participating. The CIS delegate expressed doubts about Uzbekistan; although the country has not officially withdrawn, their complete lack of data submissions raises concerns about their full participation. As a result the number of participating countries in the CIS region could decrease to 9. The importance and criticality of compliance with the established data transmission schedule was emphasized and led to the following decision: Decision 1: Timeliness of data submission. Regional Coordinators are strongly encouraged to comply with the data submission requirements endorsed by the Board in October It is critical that the Global Office is able to test thoroughly the computation processes recommended by the TAG for this round with a view to report to the Board. Regional Coordinator s input and comments regarding these computations (simulations) is needed and any delays in data transmission could result in the TAG s inability to run the necessary computations and share findings with Regional Coordinators. It is of critical importance to have enough time to review data collected by countries and ensure the quality of the final results. The Chair also emphasized the importance of the quality of National Accounts submissions and called for the agreed methods to be implemented in a transparent manner. Decision 2: GDP expenditures metadata Countries are required to explain their GDP splitting procedures and provide the sources of the data along with any underlying assumptions applied, extrapolation and calculation methods. That way each document received could be compared across countries at regional level. As a result, countries will have the knowledge and time to implement any revisions of their breakdown if needed. 2

3 Some Board members raised questions regarding the possible implications of the erroneous splitting of GDP. It was noted that the implications could vary depending on the magnitude of the errors in splitting. A possible solution to identifying significant errors could be to cluster and compare similar countries within a region, assuming countries belonging to the same cluster would exhibit similar per capita consumption patterns for the same goods. Regarding the sustainability of funding, Shaida Badiee reminded that the 2011 Round of the ICP is not only aiming to gather data but is also working to improve methodologies in regions and promote capacity building activities. The issues of funding sustainability could persist as the ICP remains an international exercise and is therefore primarily funded by international organizations. She expressed that increasing popularity of the program at regional level could result in more funding provided by national and regional organizations. She noted that recommendation from Africa on this topic is welcomed at the end of the program. 3 Other business and concluding remarks Concerning the ICP outreach strategy and the next Board meeting, the Board has decided the following: Decision 3: Communication on PPP results usage Regarding outreach activities related to PPP results usage, the Board decided that the issue be further explored during the October/November 2012 meeting of the Board with a view to preparing a comprehensive communication strategy. Decision 4: Next meeting The Global Office will circulate an with several possible dates in October or November 2012 for the next Executive Board meeting in Washington, DC. 3

4 Annex 1. 6 TH ICP 2011 Executive Board Meeting Agenda February 27, 2012 Millennium UN Plaza Hotel 1 United Nations Plaza # B, New York, NY :00-12:15 Welcome and opening remarks 12:15-12:30 Adoption of the agenda and approval of the minutes of last meeting 12:30-13: ICP progress report Update on the status of implementation of the 2011 ICP, risk assessment, and the steps ahead 13:30-14:00 Other business and concluding remarks 4

5 Annex 2. List of Participants Participant Organization Status Address 1 Enrico Giovannini ISTAT Chair giovannini@istat.it. 2 Adelheid H. Burgi-Schmelz IMF Member ABurgiSchmelz@imf.org 3 Alberto Ortega INEGI Observer aortega@inegi.org 4 Alexander Surinov Russia Member Surinov@gks.ru 5 Alice Nabalamba AfDB Observer a.nabalamba@afdb.org 6 Andrey Kosarev CIS-STAT Observer kosarev_ae@inbox.ru 7 Andrew Ndeti Kitili IMF Observer akitili@imf.org 8 Art Ridgeway Statistics Canada Observer art.ridgeway@statcan.gc.ca 9 Babakar Fall Senegal Member babakar.fall@ansd.sn statsenegal@yahoo.fr 10 Ben Paul Mungyereza Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Member Ben. Mungyereza@ubos.org 11 Charles Leyeka Lufumpa AfDB Member c.lufumpa@afdb.org 12 Chellam Palanyandy ADB Observer cpalanyandy@adb.org 13 Douglas Brooks ADB Member dbrooks@adb.org 14 Eduardo Sojo INEGI Member Eduardo.sojo@inegi.org.mx 15 François Coûté INSEE (France) Observer francois.coute@insee.fr 16 Giovanni Savio ECLAC Observer savio@un.org 17 Grant Cameron World Bank Observer gcameron1@worldbank.org 18 Jim Thomas US Bureau of Labor Statistics Observer Thomas_Jim@BLS.GOV 19 Juraj Riecan UN-ESCWA Member riecan@un.org 20 Katherine Wallman United States OMB Member kwallman@omb.eop.gov 21 Laurs NØRLUND Eurostat Member Laurs.Norlund@ec.europa.eu 5

6 Participant Organization Status Address 22 Live Margrethe Rognerud Statistics Norway Observer 23 Majed Skaini UN-ESCWA Observer 24 Mohanna A Al-Mohanna Ministry of Eco. & Planning, Saudi Arabia Member malmohanna@cds.gov.sa 25 Martine Durand OECD Member Martine.durand@oecd.org 26 Michel Mouyelo-Katoula ICP Global Manager Member mmouyelokatoula@worldbank.org 27 Miglena Abels World Bank Observer mabels@worldbank.org 28 Olav Ljones Statistics Norway Member olj@ssb.no 29 Oliver Chinganya AfDB Observer o.chinganya@afdb.org 30 Pali Lehohla Statistics South Africa Member palil@statssa.gov.za 31 Peter Harper Australian Bureau of Statistics Observer peter.harper@abs.gov.au 32 Roberto Luís Olinto Ramos IBGE Observer roberto.olinto@ibge.gov.br 33 Saber Al Harbi UN-ESCWA Observer salharbi@mone.gov.om 34 Sergey Egorenko ROSSTAT Observer egorenko@gks.ru 35 Shaida Badiee World Bank Member Sbadiee@worldbank.org 36 Shi Ting China NBS Observer shiting@gi.stats.ch 37 TCA Anant India Ministry of Statistics Member tca.anant.nic.in 38 Vladimir Sokolin CIS-STAT Member sokolin@cisstat.org 39 Youlia Antonova UNSD Observer antonova@un.org 40 Zhao Yuncheng China NBS Observer zhaoyc@gi.stats.ch 6