EU-ASEAN Compass “Capacity Building Project for Monitoring Integration Progress and Statistics”

With more than 625 million people and a GDP estimated at $2.4 trillion in 2013, ASEAN is a dynamic economic region. Increasing capacity for implementing and monitoring a continuously growing integration as well as producing statistical evidence to build integration policies is then paramount to execute the vision of ASEAN leaders.

In order to harmonise trade statistics, Expertise France train the authorities in using appropriate tools.

Our experts in statistics help the beneficiary administrations to collect, produce and disseminate data in four key areas:

 • International trade in goods and services

 • Foreign direct investment

 • Institutional capacity building

 • Information technologies

Assistance takes the form of technical assistance missions, advisory services, studies, study visits, seminars, workshops and working groups’ activities.

This is facilitated by a core team of three key experts supported by a team of short-term experts with extensive experience in project fields
in the region.

In addition, IT equipment will be provided to countries to facilitate data exchange between national and regional statistical offices.

More information on the project website: compass.asean.org

1. What kind of support do you provide to those countries?

The support provided relates mainly to statistics on foreign trade and foreign direct investment. We work with statistics offices in countries in the zone, the General Secretariat of ASEAN itself, and all organisations that use or produce these statistics, such as central banks, Ministries of Trade, etc. Our action consists of organising working groups between statisticians in the different countries, delivering training to them or providing direct assistance on the ground.

2. Why is it an important issue in this region ?

The customs or statistics authorities in several countries in the region had neither an adequate understanding of international standards, nor the necessary tools to produce satisfactory statistics on their foreign trade in goods. A team of experts was therefore sent out to train them. Similarly, several countries use investment authorisations, which they issue to foreign businesses, to record the total foreign direct investments made in the country each year. But simply authorising an investment does not mean it actually happens in practice. You have to start from actual measurements. That means training the authorities to organise statistical surveys and maintaining a register of businesses created or developed based on using foreign funds.