The National Statistics Office (NSO) is all set for the conduct of the 1999 Updating of the List of Establishments (ULE). Beginning May 3, 1999, NSO field enumerators will be visiting establishments all over the country in all economic sectors. The nationwide listing activity will last until July 15, 1999.

According to Director Margarita Guerrero of the Industry and Trade Statistics Department (ITSD), the List of Establishments (LE) is an updated and reliable register of single proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and cooperatives. The list contains name and addresses of establishments, their legal and economic organizations, starting year of operations, and number of workers. She added that the LE is the basis for generating the sampling frame of censuses and surveys on establishments. It is also a main source of information for the NSO-based Databank on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). This databank was mandated by Memorandum Order 294 issued by then President Fidel V. Ramos in 1995.

Ideally, the ULE should be conducted every year. However, due to budgetary constraints the last of its kind was conducted in 1996.

The ULE involves the capturing of "births" or new establishments and the recording of their characteristics. Likewise, it also documents the "deaths" or closed establishments as well as the changes in the "old" establishments.

Meanwhile, Administrator Tomas Africa revealed that "this year’s ULE has a new feature which is the decentralized microcomputer-based strategy for data processing." This means that some provincial and all 15 regional offices of the NSO have been provided with the capability of generating baseline information at the local level. Transforming NSO field offices into ULE Processing Centers (ULE-PC) will expand their data dissemination capabilities and will make them more responsive to the specific needs of the data users in their respective localities.

As early as January 1999, preparatory activities were already initiated by the NSO relevant to the undertaking. Training programs at various levels were also conducted at the NSO Central Office in Sta. Mesa. Just recently, regional administrators, provincial/district statistics officers and regional/provincial statisticians were the participants in a technical workshop on field operations and decentralized processing.

The information that will be generated by the 1999 ULE is also expected to serve as guide to survey planners in the geographical allocation of resources on the basis of the number of establishment in a specific area. Furthermore, baseline data for policy and program formulation and monitoring of trade and industry development can also be obtained from the LE.

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