Standardize data types / concept schemes for NACE code

[pvdbosch]

There are different variants. Each additional digit in the code is a more detailed subcategory.

• European NACE codes
  • https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nace/overview
  • V2 and V2.1
  • up to four digits, formatted xx.yy
• Belgian NACE codes which are a superset (specialization) of european ones
  • up to seven digits
  • FPS eco
  • NSSO seems to use less digits (x>=1000 x<=99999) - See Annex 31
  • versions: Nace2003 - Nace2008

[JDMKSZ]

NACE-BEL 2008: https://statbel.fgov.be/nl/over-statbel/methodologie/classificaties/nace-bel-2008

[pvdbosch]

From what I can find, there are three main contexts in which NACE-codes are used in Belgium:

• VAT (FPS Fin): at organization (enterprise) level => 5 digit version (TBC)
• ONSS: at organization + establishment level => 5 digit version
• economical activities (CBE) : at establishment level => 2-7 variable length

Examples:

• on enterprise : NSSO + vat
• on establishment : NSSO + CBE

The different variants could be represented like this:

NaceCode:
  description: NACE activity code (international). The first two digits are division of activity. Each further digit specifies an additional level of detail within the category of the previous level. The meaning of the first four digits are standard and defined by EU. Further digits may vary from country to country.
  type: string
  pattern: '^\d{2}\d*$'

NaceBel2008Code:
  description: Belgian NACE activity code. The meaning of the first four digits are standard across all countries. The last 3 digits are defined in the Belgian NACE 2008 list.
  type: string
  pattern: '^\d{2}\d{0,5}$'

NaceBel2008Length5Code:
  description: Belgian NACE activity code of length 5, as used for NSSO and for VAT purposes. The meaning of the first four digits are standard across all countries. The last digit is defined in the Belgian NACE 2008 list.
  type: string
  pattern: '^\d{5}$'

We could also use allOf to indicate a specialization (NaceCode > NaceBelCode > NaceBel5Code), TBD what the impact would be.
More specialized types are less flexible to change, but more clear in which detail level is used and more useful for input validation.

Above types could be included as "DataType".

We also could include three concept schemes:

• NaceEuRev2 (NACE revision 2)
• NaceEuRev2_1 (the new NACE revision 2.1, which would be adopted >= 2025)
• NaceBel2008 (currently included as Nace2008, but maybe to be renamed?) - which is an extension of NaceEuRev2

As for properties, we currently have "economicActivity" http://vocab.belgif.be/ns/other#economicActivity and "orgActivity"http://www.w3.org/ns/regorg#orgActivity; both in draft. They seem to be same thing. I'd prefer to have no "org" prefix to be consistent with other vocabularies, so rather "economicActivity" (or "activity"). Distinguishing between VAT/CBE/NSSO use cases would be going a bit too far IMHO, we'd be importing current administrative complexity in fedvoc.