Government extends establishment (business) survey to year end

~~Adz:Left~~ Roadtown, Tortola - Government has extended the deadline for completion of its Establishment (business) Survey to the end of the year and is appealing for the cooperation of local businesses.

The survey, which started in April this year, is designed to capture information on expenditure, revenue and other areas from local businesses, in an attempt to measure the performance of various economic sectors.  The information gathered through the establishment survey is important for the formation of government policy and will also enable better informed private sector investment decisions.

Deputy Director of the Development Planning Unit (DPU) Ms. Patlian Johnson explained that “the information collected is going to determine the output of the Territory, output in terms of total expenditure and revenue and is used to calculate the Gross Domestic Product, which is the measure output.” She added that “with the information collected, we will be able to determine what sort of transactions the BVI engages in with the rest of the world - that is called the balance of payments.”

The DPU official told the Department of Information and Public Relations it is hoping the extension will generate more feedback from business owners. She revealed that of the 811 questionnaires delivered to business establishments, to date only 177 have been completed and returned to the DPU, which represents only 22%.

“We are urging businesses if you have questionnaires in your possession which are not completed, to please do so as soon as possible. We have extended the deadline for submission of the completed questionnaires to December 31 so we are hoping that with these extra two months, we will see the response rate increase significantly,” Ms. Johnson said.
 
The DPU Deputy Director said the department is also willing to lend assistance to business owners who need help completing the survey. In addition to fielding questions from business owners, Ms. Johnson said the DPU staff is “willing to go to the person’s place of business and assist them in actually completing the questionnaire.”

She added “the businesses can give us their financial statements which will be held in confidentiality and we can complete the questionnaire for them and if we have any additional questions or require additional information, we will ask them.” Ms. Johnson is also encouraging business owners who do not keep adequate records to complete the questionnaires using approximate figures.

The DPU official is assuring business owners that the information submitted will be treated with the strictest confidence. “Confidentiality is a real concern for a lot of persons involved in the survey but I would like to reassure persons in the business community that the DPU is taking every step possible to ensure that information sent into the department is used for the purposes outlined as well as kept confidential.”

She added that the DPU’s data collection process is “governed by the Statistical Act, 2005 which makes provisions for all DPU employees to take an oath of confidentiality and the act also has provisions for how the information is published so there is no link between the information and any individual business.”

Ms. Johnson noted that for further protection business owners can opt to have the questionnaires returned to them once the information has been extracted by the DPU. Questionnaires which are not returned will be destroyed.
 
The Development Planning Unit is responsible for acquiring and analysing statistics to facilitate economic planning and analysis. The unit functions under the umbrella of the Premier’s Office.