ISIC Rev.4 draft, Section N “Professional, scientific and technical activities”

1. ISIC Rev.4 draft, Section N “Professional, scientific and technical activities” United Nations Statistics Division Workshop on Classifications, Montevideo, Uruguay 14-18 March 2005

2. Concept, scope • Comprises professional, scientific and technical activities performed for others • Comprises activities that require a high degree of expertise and training • Services provided to other industries or to households • Responds to increasing importance of these services • Responds to increasing need for better recognition of specific categories

3. may 2004 draft • ISIC Rev. 3.1 section K - “Real estate, renting and business activities” has been broadly “split” into: • ISIC Rev. 4 draft, Section M – “Real estate, rental and leasing activities” • ISIC Rev. 4 draft, Section N – “Professional, scientific and technical activities” • Covers specialized activities typically provided to businesses • ISIC Rev. 4 draft, Section O – “Administrative and support service activities” • Covers general support activities typically provided to businesses

4. After the last two Technical Subgroup meetings (february, march 2005): Was decided to elevate “Real estate activities” and “Rental and leasing activities” to section level The size of real estate activities merits a section Useful for top-top aggregation structure of ISIC

5. May 2004 draft 64 – Legal and accounting activities 65 – Activities of holding companies; management and management consultancy activities 66 – Architecture and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis 67 – Scientific research and development 68 - Advertising and market research 69 – Photographic activities and other professional, scientific and technical activities 70 – Veterinary activities Changes to the May 2004 draft: 65 becomes: “Management and management consultancy activities” Changes in its scope and structure Some structure changes in division 69 “Other professional, scientific and technical activities” (to be looked at in separate slides) Structure of Section N

7. ISIC 4 draft, Div.64 • Continuity at class level with ISIC Rev. 3.1 • Legal and accounting activities individually recognized at group level to reflect specialization and expertise • ISIC Rev. 3.1 K – Real estate, renting and business activities 74 – Other business activities 741 – Legal, accounting, bookkeeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy; market research and public opinion polling; business and management consultancy

8. ISIC 4 draft, Div.64 • Question in the draft: Currently, two separate groups have been created for: • Legal activities and • Accounting, bookkeeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy Should these be combined into one group and disaggregated only at the class level or is the current proposal acceptable? The majority of responses agreed with current proposal.

10. ISIC 4 draft, Div.65 • Activities are individually recognized • Continuity with ISIC Rev. 3.1 disrupted • The group level delineates three levels in the hierarchy of the company: • holding companies • strategic management and organizational planning, decision making, operational control – head offices • management and management consultancy when conducted separately from the operational company

11. ISIC Rev.4 draft, Div.65 • Questions in the draft: • Revision of SNA: bank holding companies vs. other holding companies ? • Are the activities of financial holding companies better placed here or in Division 59 “Financial intermediation, except insurance and pension funding”

12. Changes to division 65 after 2005 TSG meetings • A new group 592 created under “Financial and Insurance activities” for the purely holding securities/equities activity • 592 will include financial and non-financial holding companies • Division 65 will have two groups: • 651 for the head offices (which may perform holding activities as well) • 652 for the management of companies and enterprises on a fee or contract basis

13. - Group elevated to a division

15. ISIC Rev.4 draft, Div. 67 • Continuity with ISIC Rev. 3.1 preserved at group level Countries welcomed the creation of this class. TSG made the following remarks: - the R&D in biotech activities takes place also in units classified elsewhere, but - this new class represents an attempt to measure the R&D biotech activity from an industry perspective; those few units that are specialized in such activity

16. Question in the draft: • -Should division 68 be combined with division 69, given • the relatively small size of the latter? • The majority of responses supported keeping 68 • “Advertising and market research” separate from • division 69.

17. Changes to the may 2004 draft: • “Specialized design activities” recognized in a • separate class, 6910 • “Photographic activities” renumbered 6920 • 6990 “Other professional, scientific and technical activities”

18. ISIC Rev.4 draft, Div. 68, 69,70 • Veterinary activities kept with professional services - useful to have human health and social work identified separately from a policy perspective (pro) - human health and veterinary activities have similarities (con)