The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) received, in the week of June 23-27, a Technical Mission from the National Statistical Institute (INE) of Mozambique, with the aim of exchanging experiences related to surveys on the sectors of Registry and of Annual Survey of Enterprises, at the IBGE headquarters in Rio de Janeiro (RJ).

The Mission addressed the following topics: knowledge of the management process of the IBGE's Registry (FUE) sectors; company classification techniques; rules for data profiling; mechanisms for using single statistical identifiers; sampling methods for company surveys; good practices in the use of administrative data and big data to update the FUE; tools for integrating business statistics with international trade; and good practices for producing demographic and gender indicators for companies.

There were also discussions about the Annual Survey of Enterprises, covering the following topics: data collection methodologies and practices for annual business survey statistics in Brazil; methodologies for editing, analysis and the dissemination of annual data and the results are used to support public policies; and the integration of annual statistics into systems of National Accounts and in the governance of economic and social policies.

The Coordinator of Registry and Classifications at the Directorate of Surveys (DPE/COCAD), Francisco de Souza Marta, explained that one of the main objectives of the Technical Visit is to enable the exchange of experiences and learning from Portuguese-speaking countries. “We hope to share our experiences and learning from technicians working in other National Statistical Institutes and to find out about technical advances and difficulties so that we can establish a channel of dialogue. Ultimately, the National Statistical Institutes share the same objectives, but with different realities,” he pointed out.

The Deputy Coordinator of DPE/COCAD, Vinícius Mendonça Fonseca, gave a presentation on the IBGE Registry of Enterprises and pointed out that the IBGE contributes to the Mission by “sharing knowledge to improve the quality of information”.

“This Mission is very important to us, for, within the scope of South-South cooperation and considering that Brazil is more advanced compared to our country, we believe it is important to have this exchange in order to increasingly improve our national statistical system, with emphasis on the production of economic statistics,” stated the Mission Coordinator, from the Mozambican NSI, Alexandre Silvestre Mandlate.

NSI Mozambique Technician Sandra Maria Antonio Caetano Dias Pinoca reiterated that the Visit is aimed at the observation of how indicators are produced in Brazil, which is an advanced country in relation to many African ones. “We came to learn how to produce our indicators using the methods and standards that are adopted here. We are having this exchange in several sectors, not only in terms of business statistics, but also in other population statistics. We learned a lot during these days and I believe that we will take a huge amount of knowledge back to our country, to implement what we have learned.”

On Wednesday (25), the Technical Mission continued with the integration between the NSI Mozambique teams with technicians from the Division of Structural and Thematic Statistics in Enterprises (DPE/CESET). DPE/CESET Coordinator Andréa Bastos da Silva Guimarães and Deputy Coordinator, Fernanda de Vilhena Cornélio Silva, presented the main current survey studies. Soon after, the CESET’s Methods Manager, Adriana Bandeira Moraes, presented the survey sampling methodology.

In the afternoon, NSI technicians and CESET technicians visited the Rio de Janeiro State Superintendency (SES/RJ), where CESET Technicians, Andressa Nascimento da Silva and Rômulo Vittorio Benito Vitagliano, together with the State Supervisor of Enterprises Surveys, Nathalia de Freitas Ribeiro Pereira, presented the Integrated System of Annual Enterprises Surveys (SIPEA), highlighting the approach functionalities, the main monitoring reports on data collection and editing during data entry.

The Technical Mission lasted an entire week - Photo: IBGE

On Thursday (27), the President of the IBGE, Márcio Pochmann, spoke with the technicians about the history and experience of the IBGE and NSI Moçambique in the production of statistical data. The manager of the Annual Survey of Services (PAS) at CESET, Luiz Andrés Ribeiro Paixão, presented the methodology for editing microdata and aggregates of the surveys, the treatment of missing and discrepant data and the imputation methods used.

In the afternoon, the manager of Methods at CESET, Adriana Bandeira Moraes, presented the methodology for controlling the sample and quality in sample surveys by companies. And the manager of Analysis at CESET, Marcelo Miranda Freire de Melo, explained the dissemination in structural surveys by companies, highlighting the flow of activities, the dissemination instruments and the dissemination meetings.

On the last day of the Technical Mission, CESET's substitute coordinator, Fernanda de Vilhena Cornélio Silva, gave a presentation on the internal and external uses of data from Structural and Thematic Surveys by Companies and how these results are used to formulate and monitor public policies.