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Abstract
A business register (BR) can be defined as a comprehensive database containing all significantly active business entities in the country together with their contact and classification information. It allows for transparency of the types of business activities and actors in the country. Such a BR includes not only information on regional coordinates, the legal status, the ownership, but also on the size and kind of economic activity. This information is imperative for governmental and administrative purposes such as assessing taxes and social contributions, auditing corporations, supervising environment-friendly ways of production and fair competition, subsidizing efficiently, performing reliable and comprehensive statistics, steering structural reforms and the like.
In addition to this, a BR can also increase the accuracy of resource allocation of private investors. A BR is a tool for the preparation and co-ordination of surveys in order to fulfill its main purpose to supply sample data necessary for conducting surveys.
Keywords: Business regster, sample design, statistic burden, nonresponse, industry survey, investment climate
1. Introduction
In order to increase transparency on the establishments, enterprises and their interconnections it is useful to have a register of these businesses. Such a business register (BR) includes not only information on regional coordinates, the legal status, the ownership, but also on the size and kind of economic activity. This information is imperative for governmental and administrative purposes such as assessing taxes and social contributions, auditing corporations, supervising environment-friendly ways of production and fair competition, subsidizing efficiently, performing reliable and comprehensive statistics, steering structural reforms and the like. But for the optimal allocation of their resources and their investment, private entrepreneurs also need transparency about the institutional economic setup they are part of.
In Pakistan as in many other countries transparency is limited since the informal sector is relevant. Nevertheless, those economic actors who are playing the tune in business and in commerce should be known well to the ministries, to the other relevant government agencies and to semi-government institutions like chambers and associations. They should be listed or otherwise be captured as comprehensive and up-to-date as possible.1
In order to apply advanced survey methodologies, survey frames with the following requirements are essential to provide the basis for data collection and integration. These frames need to be up...