REVIEWING CONSTRUCTION STATISTICS IN NORTH CYPRUS

misbe2011 Tracking Number 30

Construction is one of the industries of strategic economic importance. Governments using their national institutions are involved in the collection of economic statistics, which indicate the state of their economy in an annual time series. However the completeness and accuracy of these statistics are always questionable by the stakeholders within the sector. Therefore there is an increasing need of accurate, manageable and reliable statistics for the sound analysis of the construction sector. The Annan Plan has had a major impact on the construction industry and its sub-sectors with increasing production, import and sale volumes compared to previous records in North Cyprus. Between the years of 2003 and 2009, many building and civil engineering projects like hotels, residents, dormitories, and highways were constructed by the private sector initiatives such as owners, investors, developers, and contracting firms. Additionally, many infrastructure projects were constructed under the Grant Program of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union. On the other hand, campus construction of some state universities of Turkey and local private universities are ongoing. Despite these economic developments, a national authority on statistics i.e State Statistics Institute has not been established yet. This creates a great lack of reaching and accessing updated statistic information needed within the construction sector as in other sectors. State Planning Organization (SPO), Union of the Chambers of Cyprus Turkish Engineers and Architects (UCCTEA) and Association of Cyprus Turkish Construction Contractors are the current public and non-governmental organizations which provide statistical information to the sector. But the statistical reports prepared by these institutions are not timely and not equipped with sufficient information for the needs of the sector. Therefore all the stakeholders (investors, contractors, architects, engineers, material suppliers) face difficulties in timely access to the information they need and therefore they cannot make sound decisions. The main objective of this study is to evaluate construction statistics of North Cyprus in order to ascertain their adequacy in terms of scope, portrait, reliability and responsiveness in their coverage of the construction industry. The research includes an extensive review of the construction statistics in North Cyprus, interviews with the key stakeholders (contractors, material suppliers, architects, engineers, consultants etc.) of North Cyprus construction industry, and in light of all these reviews a questionnaire survey to be prepared, conducted and analyzed. This review of construction statistics will provide a conceptual framework of statistical information to be presented in a more comprehensive content, sufficient portrait, highly reliable in terms of quality, and responsive to dynamic changes of the sector (inflation, structural adjustment policies etc.). Additionally, it is aimed to detect and minimize the uncollected information and thus make contribution for prevention of unregistered activities within the sector.