Chinese vice premier Zeng Peiyan Tuesday asked all statistic departments and staff to prepare for the upcoming first national economic census.

"The implementation plan of the census has been finished and other related preparation like staff selection and training are smoothly promoted," said Zeng at a national conference held in Beijing for preparation of the census.

Zeng said the census is extremely important because it is a basis for national economic control and will benefit the government, companies and people. He asked all departments and individuals report only factual economic information. All work staff must protect the legal interest of the companies and people involved in the census. Departments and officials must not change the results of the census, he said.

Some senior Chinese officials repeatedly pledged secrecy for data collected from the census to ease fears that it would be used as court evidence. However, some governmental departments and companies still fear that they might be punished for having submitted phony figures or evaded tax in the past.

"The census is aimed at obtaining accurate data for macro-economic policy decision-making instead of seeking evidence to persecute anyone," said Li Deshui, director of the National Bureauof Statistics at the Tuesday's conference.

The census, scheduled to begin December 31, is designed to create a sketch of China's secondary and tertiary industries and complete a database covering all economic sectors for the Chinese government to outline its future economic and social plan. The census will involve nearly 10 million statisticians and volunteer sand could cost billions of yuan.

China has launched state-level trial census programs in three provinces of Jilin, Zhejiang and Sichuan and the city of Beijing in this year.

Since establishing the cyclical census system in 1994, China has carried out six general surveys, but its statistics released were often accused of being "inflated or inaccurate." At present, China is engaged in an overall reform of its statistical system to reach international standards.

Source: Xinhua