SCAD launches survey project

Abu Dhabi: The Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi (SCAD) has launched what it calls “one of the most important statistical projects” in the capital, involving 200 people in three surveys focusing on economy, foreign investment and employment and wages.

Data is to be obtained through questionnaires; handed-out during visits to randomly selected economic establishments across Abu Dhabi.

The results are expected to be crucial to policymakers and the business sector, as well as researchers, in drawing up development plans for target sectors, SCAD said. It’s hoped that the project will also provide a precise database.

The Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi emphasised the importance of economic surveys in analysing the contribution of each of the target sectors, especially given the recent economic growth. The economic surveys will focus on seven key areas, including industry, construction, wholesale, retail trade and repairs service, transport and storage, information and communication, banks and financial institutions and services.

The survey will aim to provide data for compiling national accounts and estimating the contribution of economic activities in GDP. This will not only contribute to economic policy and decision-making in Abu Dhabi, but help towards assessing the impact of economic policies.

The data will also be useful to businessmen and investors in making decisions. The results should shed light on diversification in non-oil sectors, and help in measuring the progress made by the Abu Dhabi Government and the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, besides providing vital statistics. 

The Industrial survey will take into account the extractive industries, such as mining and quarrying, as well as the manufacturing industries and the production and distribution of electricity and water. It’s hoped the study will provide information on attracting domestic and foreign investment too.

Results of the construction survey will help to identify the needs of the community and analyse the advances taking place.

Wholesale and retail trade and motor vehicle repair services are also important to the economy and information on this sector is much needed.

The study of transport and storage activity will analyse how well connected Abu Dhabi is to other emirates and how easily it can be accessed from other countries. The centre points out that development of land, sea and air transport facilities are required for the economy to flourish. Storage activity too is high on the agenda as it has a knock-on affect on business.

Recently, this sector in Abu Dhabi has started to focus on attracting other countries in an effort to bridge the digital gap. The government has plans to link all government departments via a single network and the data obtained from the ICT survey will help this to be carried out. 

The banking and financial institutions generally mirror the performance of the whole economy. Therefore related policies have a direct bearing on economic policy. In addition, investment decisions depend on the ease of access to information about the sector and other economic activities. 

The services sector survey will include hotels, restaurants, health, educational, legal, accounting and personal services.

SCAD’s Foreign Investment Survey - 2010 will provide data on the volume of foreign investment through economic activity. It will identify the characteristics of investors, the role of foreign investment and the transfer of modern technology to the national economy. The data will pertain to the financial year 2009. The study will also assess the impact of foreign investment on employment, training, exports and technology transference.

SCAD’s survey of Employment and Wages will produce data on the number of employees and the average number of working hours of paid workers in economic establishments, detailed by a set of economic, social and demographic characteristics.

The main objective is to build a reference database on the number of establishments and manpower size in both public and private sectors across the entire spectrum of economic activity, as well as information on the number of permanent and temporary workers by occupation, gender, nationality and educational status. The survey will also provide data on workers’ wages, average working hours and benefits-in-kind offered by establishments to their staff members.

The projects will survey a sample size of 5,107 economic establishments, spread across the three regions of the emirate, with 3,724 of them based in Abu Dhabi, 1,143 in Al Ain and 240 in the western region.

The Foreign Investment Survey will cover 382 private establishments, while the employment and wages survey will probe 3,101 private and government establishments.

The Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi has organised several training courses for staff to be involved in the project, including a two-week session to prepare trainers.