China's top statistician promised Wednesday in Beijing to provide a complete picture of tertiary industry by figuring out the industry's "true output" in the ongoing First National Economic Census.

Addressing an international workshop on economic census, Li Deshui, Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics ( NBS), said there had been some omissions in the past statistics of tertiary industry, resulting in an "apparently lower" service output in proportion to China's gross domestic product (GDP).

In the eras of planned economy, China paid much less attention to the development and statistics of service sector than material production, Li said. "The after-effect is still not completely removed today."

The service sector has been increasing its contribution to China's economic output in recent years, but the major engine for the world's sixth largest economy is still the manufacturing industry, according to official statistics.

The ongoing economic census will be devoted to establishing and perfecting the statistics index system, investigation methods and channels of data collection for the service sector for future enforcement, Li Deshui said.

The First National Economic Census was kicked off last year, covering 19 industries in the national economy.

Source: Xinhua