As part of the global forum function of UNIDO, the overall objective of UNIDO's statistical activities is the timely compilation and dissemination of internationally comparable industrial statistics that could serve as the basis of research, policy recommendation and decision making by researchers, government officials, investors and other business people. To achieve this objective, UNIDO carries out the following activities:

(1) Maintenance of the General Industrial Statistics Databases (GISDbs) at the 3- and 4-digit levels of Revision 2 as well as Revision 3 of ISIC: In collaboration with OECD, UNIDO assumes sole responsibility for the collection and dissemination of global data on selected eight items: number of establishments, number of persons engaged, number of employees, number of female employees, wages and salaries, output, value added and gross fixed capital formation plus, in the case of the database according to the 3-digit level of ISIC (Rev.2), production indexes.

UNIDO collects annual data directly from all non-OECD member countries through UNIDO's country questionnaire while OECD collects data for its member states and provides them to UNIDO. Reported data are screened and if necessary, adjusted and, whenever possible, missing data are supplemented with UNIDO estimates and other sources.

With respect to the current (i.e., 1996) round of the joint annual data collection, as of 15 October 1996, 95 countries have reported new data directly or through OECD, of which 12 countries have reported data in accordance with ISIC (Rev.3). Reported ISIC (Rev.3) have been incorporated in the new GIS (Rev.3) Db and, at the same time, are to be converted to data in ISIC (Rev.2) and incorporated in the GIS (Rev.2) Db. In this connection, the development of a Rev.3-Rev.2 conversion system is underway.

(2) Maintenance of other UNIDO industrial statistics databases: These databases include the Commodity-Balance Statistics Database (COMBALDb) and the Industrial Demand-Supply Balance Database (IDSBDb). Both databases contain annual data on production, imports, exports and apparent consumption at the product level (in the case of COMBALDb) or at the 4 digit level of ISIC (Rev.2) (in the case of IDSBDb). IDSBDb is updated annually while COMBALDb is updated biennially (the next update is planned to be made in 1997).

(3) Publication of the International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics: The data obtained by UNIDO and OECD through the joint annual collection programme of general industrial statistics are published in the UNIDO annual commercial publication, the International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics which is bound, marketed and distributed by a commercial publisher. The next issue (i.e., the 1997 edition - approx. 700 pages) of the Yearbook will be published in the first quarter of 1997.

(4) Dissemination of the UNIDO databases among external users: On request, UNIDO supplies copies of its databases in computer-readable form to wide-range of users including government agencies, international organizations, universities, research institutions, consulting/marketing firms, producers' associations and individual researchers/analysts. In this connection, improvement of data service functions is a priority issue and further development of related software and user support system is made on the regular basis.

(5) Technical assistance to national statistical offices: The Industrial Statistics Branch of UNIDO implements technical co-operation projects in the field of industrial statistics. A typical form of these projects relates to installation of the micro-computer software (called NISP - National Industrial Statistics Programme), which was developed by the Branch, in national statistical offices (NSOs) in order to improve the operational capability of the NSOs in compilation, of national, provincial and/or regional industrial statistics based on establishment/firm data.