Int'l conference on informal economy in developing countries to be held in Nepal

KATHMANDU, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Realizing the fact that most of the people in developing countries depend on "informal economy", an international conference on measuring informal economy in developing countries is set to begin in Nepali capital Kathmandu on Wednesday.

The conference being jointly organized by the South Asian Institute of Management (SAIM) and International Association for Research on Income and Wealth (IARIW), Canada will look into the informal sector of developing countries including Nepal and other economic activities which escape measurement, into the mainstream.

The main theme of the especial conference is to outline mechanism to measure the informal economy.

By its nature, the informal economy is difficult to measure, informal enterprises are not usually listed in the statistical registers used for official surveys so that indirect methods have to be used to estimate their contribution to value added, output and employment, said the organizers.

"GDP in informal sectors are not calculated, it is important to measure the contribution made by informal economy for development," said Prof. Dr. Bijay K.C, Dean of SAIM at a press conference on Tuesday.

The conference will be discussing at various aspects of the informal economy, including the size of employment and output, income distribution, access to government education and health services, price hikes of basic foodstuffs, ad government policies for promoting the welfare of those who live in the informal economy.

The informal sectors comprises households with at least some market production, production units with low levels of organization and technology, and with unclear distinction between labor and capital, said the organizers. These units usually are not covered by establishment or enterprise surveys, they said.

The especial conference of IARIW on measuring informal economy in developing countries will be attended by more than 60 high level economists and statisticians from over 30 countries of the world will attend the conference, according to the organizers.

The IARIW, Canada holds especial conference in every two years. In 2007 especial conference on "Measuring Transactional Economy" was held in China. The conference will be held on Sept. 23-26.