adjustments required to ensure compliance by the end of the transition period imply the need for the commitment of substantial efforts and resources, particularly for countries at a relatively lower level of statistical development. By requiring such commitment from governments of subscribing countries, the SDDS could lead to the longer-term benefit of good statistical systems in these countries which are able to respond effectively to the need for timely and meaningful economic and financial statistics to support sustainable development.
While it is not realistic to expect all countries to be able to comply with the "best practices" spelled out by the SDDS, it is essential for all countries to develop their statistical systems to provide reasonably good basic statistics, and to adopt good practices. The IMF is in the process of developing the General Data Dissemination Standards (GDDS) which is intended for countries, which do not subscribe to the SDDS. As with the SDDS, the establishment of the GDDS will result in the promulgation of an international standard for the dissemination or disclosure of good economic and financial statistics. The GDDS will be helpful in promoting statistical development in Asian countries who are not subscribing to the SDDS, and whose statistical systems are still at a relatively low level of development.
III Revised Statistical Frameworks
The SDDS and GDDS specify dissemination standards and, by themselves, are not sufficient in ensuring high quality and comparable economic and financial statistics. This can be achieved through the adoption of international statistical frameworks. The major frameworks for economic and financial statistics are provided by the United Nations' System of National Accounts 1993 (SNA93), and the various manuals of the International Monetary Fund, notably the Balance of Payments Manual, 5th Edition (BPM5). The revision of these frameworks form part of the concerted efforts by the major international agencies (United Nations, IMF, World Bank, OECD and Eurostat) to harmonise statistical standards and concepts. The completion of these revisions have expanded greatly the scope and coverage of the international frameworks governing the compilation of economic and financial statistics. The expansion of these
