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(a) Main BPM5 standard services components
2.52. BPM5 statistics are arranged within a coherent
structure to facilitate their use and adaptation for many
purposes, including policy formulation, analytical
studies, projections, bilateral comparisons of particular
components or
total transactions, and regional and
global aggregations. The 11 main BPM5 standard
services components are:
1. Transportation.
2. Travel.
3. Communications
services.
4. Construction
services.
5. Insurance
services.
6. Financial
services.
7. Computer and information services.
8. Royalties and license fees.
9. Other business services.
10. Personal, cultural, and recreational services.
11. Government services, not included elsewhere
(n.i.e.).
2.53. These 11 services components together match the
GATS product coverage relatively well, with several
exceptions. First, for the most part, the component
government services, not included elsewhere (n.i.e.) is
excluded from GATS.
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Second, some transactions
considered as services under GATS are recorded under
goods in BPM5; this concerns the value of repairs of
most goods that are sent abroad for repair, as well as
most processing services. Third, some BPM5
components, especially
travel,
include transactions in
goods. Fourth, BPM5 includes payments for
royalties
and license fees. Except for franchise payments, this
component is excluded from GATS coverage.
(b) Labour-related flows of funds
2.54. The relevance of information on short-term
employment of foreign staff in service industries was
indicated above (see paras. 2.20 and 2.21). BPM5
labour-related flows in the current account provide such
information, although the income to be recorded in the
balance of payments covers the compensation of persons
working not only in service-producing activities but also
in goods-producing industries.
34
Article 1 of GATS, describing the scope of the agreement,
excludes services supplied in the exercise of governmental
authority, meaning any service that is supplied neither on a
commercial basis nor in competition
with one or more service
suppliers (see annex V).
2.55. When individuals work for less than one year in
an economy where they are not resident, BPM5 records
their earnings as
compensation of employees, within the
income component, while their expenditure in the host
economy is placed in the travel component.
Compensation of employees comprises wages, salaries
and other compensation received by individuals for work
performed for residents (natural or juridical persons) of
economies where they are not resident.
2.56. In addition to staff working abroad for less than
one year,
compensation of employees covers potentially
longer-term employees, such as border workers and
local (host country) employees of embassies, consulates
and international organizations.
2.57. Individuals who
stay abroad for one year or
more, or who intend to do so, are regarded in BPM5 as
residents of the foreign economy, and so their earnings
and expenditures are not recorded in the balance of
payments because the flows are domestic transactions
within that foreign economy.
35
Such individuals are
called
migrants in BPM5.
Workers’ remittances are
current transfers by
migrant workers who are employed
in a foreign economy and considered to be residents
there. These remittances are classified as current
transfers in BPM5.
2.58. The relevance of information about
workers’
remittances is related to the facts that GATS does not
provide precise guidelines for the definition of
temporary presence and that most countries’
commitments refer to two to five years of stay. Thus,
workers’ remittances are
a useful complement to the
information provided by
compensation of employees.
(c) Foreign direct investment
2.59. Foreign direct investment is usually a
precondition for the establishment of a
commercial
presence. FDI statistics are thus a relevant complement
to FATS statistics as information on the
commercial
presence mode of supply. Where countries do not
compile FATS statistics, FDI statistics may be the only
available quantitative information on this mode of
supply.
35
The one-year rule does not apply to students, medical patients
and employees working in government enclaves, such as
embassies
and military bases, who remain residents of their
economies of origin even if the length of stay in another
economy is one year or more.
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2.60. FDI reflects the objective of obtaining a lasting
interest by a resident entity in one economy (a direct
investor) in a business in another economy (a direct
investment enterprise). The lasting interest implies the
existence of a long-term relationship between the direct
investor and the direct investment enterprise, as well as a
significant degree of influence on the management of the
enterprise. Direct investment includes the initial
transaction between the two entities and all subsequent
financial transactions between them and among
affiliated enterprises, both incorporated and
unincorporated. In
inward and outward direct
investment statistics, where feasible, the direct
investment enterprise should be classified by its
industrial activity in the host country and by the
industrial activity of its direct investor.
2.61. A foreign direct investor is an individual, an
incorporated or unincorporated public or private
enterprise, a government, a group of related individuals
or a group of related incorporated and/or unincorporated
enterprises that has invested in a direct investment
enterprise. A direct investment enterprise is a subsidiary,
associate or branch operating in a country other than the
direct investor’s country of residence. The conceptual
basis for compiling foreign direct investment statistics
has been defined in BPM5 and in the OECD Benchmark
Definition, involving such
concepts as direct investor,
lasting interest, significant influence on management and
at least 10 per cent equity interest or equivalent voting
power.
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