The second phase of the economic census: Actively deploying from the very beginning

– The second phase of the economic census 2021 is conducted from July 1 to July 30, in order to collect information on individual production and business establishments and religious and belief establishments. Right from the early days of July 2021, the Provincial Statistics Department and related units have actively implemented many activities to serve the census.

In the second phase of the census, the information collected from individual production and business establishments and religious and belief establishments will include the units’ business results, quantity, size and labor, level of information technology application and so forth. According to the results of previous information collection, the whole province currently has about 28,000 individual production and business establishments and 89 religious and belief establishments.

Mr. Hoang Hai Dang, Deputy Director of Department of Statistics, Head of the Standing Group assisting the Provincial Economic Census Steering Committee said that compared with phase 1, phase 2 only has one month to implement while it will take enumerators more time due to the fact that they have to go to each unit to collect information. Therefore, Department of Statistics has actively deployed training to all districts and the city as soon as the Covid-19 epidemic was contained.

The leader of Department of Statistics checked the operation of units and enumerators on the system

Currently, the Census Steering Committees at all levels are strengthening the inspection and supervision of enumerators’ activities to promptly detect errors and correct them from the very beginning; promote propaganda about the second phase of the economic census in the media; through banners, slogans…with determination to complete it on time.

One of the biggest differences of the second phase of the economic census compared to previous years is the combination of face-to-face and online forms. Specifically, enumerators have to directly go to each establishment to conduct interviews, collect information and conduct online surveys using smart electronic devices. From there, the data is updated on the system so that the steering committees at all levels can monitor and look up. As a result, it not only helps to make information transparent but also makes drastic changes such as improving quality through easy inspection and control at all levels; the processing of data is mostly done by machines, so there are very few errors, the processing time is twice as fast as doing it manually; the cost is only 50% of the previous one.

The second phase of the economic census takes place in the context that the Covid-19 epidemic in the province has been temporarily repelled, so relevant levels and sectors have quickly implemented many activities to optimize the implementation time.

From the end of June 2021 up to now, the province has mobilized 270 enumerators for production and business establishments, ten enumerators for religious and belief establishments; organized 12 professional training courses for 550 participants; promoted propaganda, sending information to establishments subject to enumeration and so on.

In Lang Son city – the place with the most respondents during this period, Ms. Luong Thi Van Anh, Director of the City Statistics Sub-Department said that the city currently has about 7,000 production and business establishments and 30 religious and beliefs establishments, the city has the most establishments compared to the districts. Before the enumeration, they asked enumerators to focus on studying and forming enumeration skills right in training courses because there are many new points this year. At the same time, closely monitor the enumerators’ daily activities, promptly correct errors to ensure enumeration results. As a result, by the end of July 7, in the city, there were 1,440 individual production and business establishments and religious and belief establishments completing the survey, reaching nearly 25%.

Lang Son city organized propaganda on the second phase of the economic census by mobile communication vehicles

Like the city, all districts are also actively implementing solutions to ensure the collection of information is accurate, complete and guaranteed on time such as regular monitoring, guidance, explaining professional problems to enumerators; promptly grasping difficulties, reporting to the superior steering committee any problems that need to be coordinated to solve; supporting enumerators to contact production and business establishments temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 epidemic; ensuring good implementation of regulations, measures to prevent and control the epidemic and so forth.

In some districts such as Dinh Lap, Trang Dinh, Van Lang, although there are few respondents, this does not delay the census, the completion rate of the census has reached more than 30% just after one week, thanks to that, up to now, the province has over 6,000 business establishments enumerated, reaching the rate of nearly 22%.

With the initiative and positivity of relevant levels, sectors and units right from the first days, it is believed that Lang Son province will complete the second phase of the economic census 2021 fully, accurately, on time and ahead of schedule.