The business services sector, which currently accounts for almost 12 percent of GDP; and transport, where a new survey will replace the old land and freight transport survey suspended two years ago because of inadequate coverage of the sector.
The new transport survey will be one of the first of these new initiatives to come on line, with data collection scheduled to begin in November 2006.
The old land freight transport survey, last published in March 2004, collected information on total gross turnover, tonnage transported, income of commodities transported and kilometres travelled.
However, the survey gathered data only on one element of land transport, while the structure of the transport industry increasingly requires coverage of other modes of transport and related activities.
Stats SA is surveying the feasibility of economic activity in the following areas:
Major stakeholders in the transport industry from both the public and private sectors have been involved in supplying information used in the planning of the survey and research into required coverage of the sector.
The old survey instrument measured only one part of land freight transport and as a result, data for estimation of the transport industry's short-term behaviour and consequent contribution to quarterly GDP growth were inadequate.
Additionally, the structure of the transport sector was changing, with a shift from rail to road transport, an increase in air transport and the development of a supporting and auxiliary sector.
This survey will allow users to track the behaviour of the sector on a monthly basis and will supplement information currently obtained on a quarterly and annual basis through other survey instruments.
The introduction of a new survey instrument to measure economic activity in the transport sector is a good indication of the way in which the collection of economic statistics is subject to the process of continuous improvement and necessary change.
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