In the 1993 SNA, the concept of the national economy is discussed in terms of “economic
territory of a country’’ for which two contradicting criteria are used: “administered by a
government” and “free circulation of persons, goods and capital”. The criteria need to be
clarified. Clarification is also needed between domestic and national economy. With globalization, there are an increasing number of institutional units with connections to two
or more economies. The concept of “predominant” center of economic interest has been put
forward to address this issue. For enterprises and other entities with little or no physical presence, the criteria of production and
location, that are used in the 1993 SNA to help determine residence, are not very relevant. Should
the jurisdiction that allows the creation of and regulates the entity be considered as the
determining the entity’s predominant centre of interest? The number of non-permanent workers with connections to two or more territories has grown
substantially in recent years. Would it be useful to prepare supplementary presentations for countries where the number of non-permanent resident persons is significant, bringing together
relevant components of contract services, compensation of employees, workers’ remittances and migrants’ transfers with the numbers of short-term non-resident workers? Can the residence
concept be more closely harmonized with demographic, tourism, and migration statistics and any remaining differences spelt out? |