REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

PART III:
Serbia, Macedonia and many other countries, is facing a rapid globalisation process of
its economy. Having the huge impact of globalisation on economic and social spheres
and the need for relevant statistical information in this field, it is important that national
statistical authorities take a necessary steps in: first, understanding the current changes in
international trade statistics, second, implementing them in their own national statistical
systems and third, constantly adapting their statistical methods and infrastructure to an
evolving international framework.
Key Words: FATS, globalisation, transnational companies, foreign affiliates, foreign
direct investment.
1. Contemporary concept of international trade and foreign trade statistics
Classical concept of international trade uses the modern definition of this activity as an
exchange of goods and services across national borders. This definition was adequate in
the past when it included most of the trade flows between nations. Nowadays international
trade flows become so diverse and complex that made simply defining international trade
impossible.
International Trade has become most important economic activity in the world economy.
During the second half of 20 th century international trade have grown faster than the world
production. Since world production is the source of products that are traded in international
trade we can conclude that trade is continuously augmenting its share in total global
activity. In table 1 we can observe this dynamical growth of international trade activity
in past few years. But international movement of private capital in the form of foreign
direct investments (FDIs) is also very significant in the second half of 20 th century and
specifically in years presented in table 1.
Table 1: World production and exports 2005-2008, billions USD
2005 2006
2007 2008
Actual Projection Projection
World Production 44,745 48,245 52,850 53,352 57,323
World Production PPP 61,259 66,229 65,752 70,807 75,632
World Exports 12,822 14,697 14,240 16,786 18,334
Trade in Goods 10,296 11,893 10,950 13,581 14,854
Trade in Services 2,526 2,804 3,290 3,205 3,480
Foreign Direct Investments 945 1,305 1,833 ... ...
Note: Data for 2007 and 2008 are IMF projections.
Source: International Monetary Fund ”World Economic Outlook” Washington, 2007, UNCTAD, FDI Database,
Internet, www.unctad.org [Accessed 21/03/2008], World Bank ”World Development Indicators” 2009,
WTO ”International Trade Statistics” 2008 and UNCTAD ”World Investment Report” 2008.
Regarding international trade, foreign direct investments, represent the specific form of
export and import of goods and services (Stojadinović Jovanović, 2008a). The act of
foreign direct investing and selling production of local affiliate in host country or in other
countries represent the new form and surrogate for traditional importing and exporting.
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