Economic Census 2021: Focus on reviewing and ensuring the quality of collected information

– By the end of July 2021, after the second phase of the economic census, the declaration information of all the subjects on the background list has been collected. However, in order to ensure the quality of information, the Provincial Steering Committee for Economic Census has asked the steering committees of districts and city to focus on reviewing the information.

The second phase of the 2021 Economic Census was carried out from July 1 to July 31 and in two groups of subjects including religious and belief establishments; individual production and business establishments. According to the list of the Provincial Statistics Office, there are 94 religious and belief establishments and 30,343 individual business establishments participating in the census of the second phase. Due to the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Provincial Statistics Office has postponed the deadline for completing the 2021 Economic Census to September 31, 2021. However, by the end of July, the census in the province has been basically completed.

Officials of the Provincial Statistics Office discuss the contents of the Economic Census in 2021

However, during the implementation process, there were many reasons that affect the collected results such as broken operation of business establishments being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; incorrect declaration of many establishment owners; limited counting skills of enumerators; the fact that some enumerators are not familiar with the use of information technology application in the census… Facing the above fact, in order to improve the quality of information, at the meeting to evaluate the implementation of the economic census, on August 18, Mr. Luong Trong Quynh, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee, Head of the Provincial Steering Committee asked the steering committees of districts to focus on reviewing the information and use professional measures to improve the quality information collected.

Afterwards, the Provincial Statistics Office and the steering committees of the districts and city had a meeting to discuss and recommend solutions for implementation. In particular, it was necessary to focus on verifying the collected information with appropriate methods according to the characteristics of each district and city.

For example, in Bac Son district, from the beginning of August 2021, the District Steering Committee has directed relevant units to coordinate with local authorities to set up teams (from 4-5 people) to review. Ms. Tran Thi Trinh, Head of the District Statistics Office, Deputy Head of Bac Son District Census Steering Committee, said: “In the process of implementation, we have used many methods to logically compare the information declared by business establishments. From determining the number of operating months/year, the production scale of the establishments, the number and income of the employees at the establishments, etc., we can recognize anomalies or incorrect information. For establishments declaring false information, the enumerator works directly with the establishment owner under the supervision of the district supervisor to re-declare. Up to August 30, all information of more than 3,100 individual business establishments in the area has completed the review. Currently, the teams are conducting the acceptance to give the final results.”

In Loc Binh district, with the characteristics of business establishments which often distribute over a very wide area, during the investigation, some enumerators missed a number of establishments because they did not understand the area. Meanwhile, about 1/3 of the total communes and townships are not eligible to set up a commune-level steering committee (with less than 50 individual business establishments).

Enumerators guide business owners in Loc Binh district to declare information

Mr. Vi Van La, Head of Loc Binh District Statistics Office said: “In order to review information, the Office actively cooperates with local authorities, selecting a number of local officials who know the area well and have good statistical skills as well as experience from previous censuses to carry out the review. As a result, on September 8, the Office conducted an additional investigation of 34 omitted facilities, adding up the total number of facilities in the area to more than 2,700 facilities.”

Along with two districts of Bac Son and Loc Binh, the steering committees for the economic census of districts and city have seriously implemented measures to review and verify the information. During the implementation process, there is often an exchange and sharing of information between enumerators and supervisors. In addition, the steering committees at all levels always promptly understand the difficulties and problems of enumerators and work together to solve them. At the same time, they regularly compare the collected data and information with the information provided by the Provincial Statistics Office.

Thanks to the systematic implementation of the above solutions, as of September 8, 2021, the Steering Committees at all levels have completed the review and “cleaning” of information collected from 29,254 establishments and investigated additionally 250 facilities which were omitted during the investigation. Mr. Hoang Hai Dang, Deputy Head of the Provincial Statistics Office, Head of the Standing Group assisting the Provincial Steering Committee said: “As expected, in mid-September, the information review will be completed and by September 30^th the acceptance will be carried out. During the review process, we continue to ask the enumerators to act seriously, closely and not to miss any objects. “

Currently, the steering committees for economic census at all levels in the province is continuing to review and verify collected information to ensure its quality. This makes an important contribution in the assessment of the economic scale, becomes the basis for directing and operating, planning economic development strategies, attracting investment in accordance with the actual situation of the province.