【正文】 s coding hst, under the Eurostat model39。Belgian Committee on Invisible Earnings39。Balance of Payments and Foreign Trade39。Statistics39。 accepting the model39。s statistics department (Eurostat) has e up with an interesting initiative in this context in developing a prototype balance sheet for invisible transactions [Belgian Committee for Invisible Earnings, 1987]. The methodology suggested by Eurostat includes a positive definition of invisible transactions as the sum of three categories of transactions: services, ine and Eurostat mode! has a hierarchical structure divided into four levels: sections (services, ine and transfers), chapters, sectors and headings. In the most recent version of the Eurostat project, the services section prises ten chapters: ?transport ?insurance ?financial missions ?trading missions ?travel, tourism, residence abroad ?services related to technology transfer ?construction and civil engineering ?munication and culture ?services provided by public bodies ?miscellaneous services. During the discussion in the Eurostat working party, the member states showed a positive attitude to the broad outline of the model, but were very sceptical about the degree of segregation, which es up against the same practical objection in all member states: that the gathering of such detailed information would involve too heavy an administrative workload. Nevertheless, the transport cha,pter, for one, would have to be subdivided into its major sectors of seagoing transport, inland waterway transport, air transport, road transport and rail transport. Although this working party39。 ?travel。 ?insurance of goods transport。 ? sales of services by processing industries (crossborder or via foreign investment)。 concept (see section I), consists of the first of the above categories, crossborder trade in services, plus the following: ? sales by direct investment in services sectors abroad。 ? royalties for patents, manufacturing and trademark licences, and copyright. For the sake of pleteness, the total private intemational services transactions for a given country A, based on the 39。 ? transferred ine from investment in the goods and services sector。 for the very reason that services cannot be transported or stored, services transactions performed through foreign investment far outnumber straightforward exports on services. (ii) The role of information technology in the international services trade All services based primarily on the transmittal of information, whether by word of mouth, in writing, or with the printed word, are merchantable. More than anything else, the expanding capabilities and efficiency of the information works have fostered the growth in the volume of internationally merchantable services. Information of all kinds can be transmitted, stored and retrieved through these works,with the help of existing information technology. A number of service industries have made use of these expanding capabilities to generate increasing amounts of their added value internationally. However, a major share of these international services remains invisible in intemational statistics, because the added value of a service is usually included in the price of the good or service to the pletion of which it has contributed. The service itself does not lead an independent existence, except in a minority of cases. Problems with the systematic collection of intemational services data Official statistics on foreign trade in services display serious shortings not only because of the difficulty in defining and evaluating services,but also because of insufficient attention paid to services in collecting statistical services, but also because of insufficient attention paid to services in collecting statistical data. 4 The various national accounting systems used around the world are one of the basic causes of the difficulties, in that they use different methods of pilation and analysis of services data. While this situation is not confined to services, it is more extreme in this sector, for the very reason that, up to now, lack of interest has meant that far less effort has been made to coordinate and improve statistical material on services than on goods. The consequence is that there is no agreement on the classification of services, certain activities being assigned to industry in some countries, and to services in others (., construction and transport). All of the above is true of all services data, including domestic regard to specifically international services data, pilation is undoubtedly inadequate, which means that there is a lack of relevant services data. The principal causes are to be found in the above mentioned property of intangibility of services, which makes it impossible to record physically services as they cross a border, so that volumes and unit prices have no meaning. The result is that the data finally obtained are much too constitutes a particular problem for the more recent, fastgrowing services, such as advertising, accounting, legal consulting, management consulting, puter and munication services, data bank consuhation,etc. As stated earlier, the existing statistics also suffer from a total absence of figures concerning the sales of services panies through their offices abroad. These figures are nowhere to be found in the balance of payments, and elsewhere there is little or no systematic collection of data in this area, except in the United States. Moreover,the tracking down of this information is highly plicated, especially if subsidiaries are obliged to take on the nationality and legal organization of their country of adoption, or if they are bound to alter their ownership structure to favour that country39。intemational services transactions39。base39。ownership39。base39。ownership39。base39。ownership39。base39。international services39