Decision No. 141/2002/QĐ-TTg Approving the Orientation for the Development of Statistics in Vietnam until 2010

DECISION

Approving the Orientation for the Development of Statistics in Vietnam until 2010

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PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to Directive No. 28/CT-TTg dated August 19, 1998 on strengthening and modernizing statistical work;

Considering the proposal of the General Statistics Office at Report No. 428/TCTK-VP dated July 3, 2002,

 DECISION:

Article 1. Approves the Orientation for the Development of Statistics in Vietnam until 2010 with the main contents as follows:

1. Objectives:

Vietnamese statistics will be reformed both in content and form to provide timely economic and social information that is comprehensive in scope, full in content, and reliable in quality, serving the best needs of the Party and State in the cause of building and developing the country, and meeting increasingly fully and conveniently the information requirements of other users; bringing Vietnamese statistics to the advanced level of statistics in countries in the region and in accordance with international practices, contributing positively to the implementation of the roadmap for international economic integration of the country.

2. Views and Principles of Development:

a) National statistical data is the highest value legal information in the national information system, reflecting the situation of the economy and society of the country, serving promptly and fully the requirements of the Party and State, and the information needs of all entities in society.

b) Vietnamese statistics shall be guaranteed by law. Statistical information must ensure objectivity, truthfulness, transparency, practicality, and effectiveness. Sources of information, methods of collection and processing, systems of indicators, reporting and survey regimes must comply with professional principles and be based on scientific grounds. Main indicators must have high stability, meeting the requirements for spatial and temporal comparisons, both domestically and internationally. The national statistical database system must be built based on the application of modern information technology.

c) Statistical methods, classification tables, and directories shall be developed and promulgated based on international statistical standards and norms, while being suitable to the realities of Vietnam.

d) The State shall ensure sufficient resources necessary for statistics to have complete, accurate, and timely data to serve the management requirements of the economy and society of the Party and State.

đ) The State statistical system shall be organized according to a centralized management model along vertical sectors, combined with sectoral statistics.

3. Orientation for the Development of Statistical Work in Vietnam until 2010:

a) Improving and standardizing statistical products in terms of time, content, form, and compilation procedures including: economic and social statistical reports; statistical yearbooks; results of census and statistical surveys; multi-year statistical data products (5 years, 10 years, 15 years...); statistical analysis and forecasting products; statistical magazines and newsletters.

Strengthening the dissemination of statistical information to meet the good needs of the Party, State, and other users. Establishing a clear and transparent mechanism for disseminating statistical information, with measures to enhance the capacity to disseminate information to all users.

Regular economic and social statistical reports, monthly reports on the implementation of socio-economic plans must meet the requirements of government guidance and direction and become one of the official documents in government meetings.

b) Improving and perfecting statistical methods towards applying modern statistical methods, consistent with international statistical standards and norms and the realities of Vietnam, including:

Building and institutionalizing the national indicator system in a coordinated manner, reflecting the basic information requirements of users to compare with the statistical indicator systems of countries in the region and the world, with a focus on composite economic and social indicators.

Expanding the application of the national accounts system according to the methodology of the United Nations Statistical Office. Reorganizing specialized statistics to be consistent with the compilation requirements of the national accounts system.

Standardizing classification tables and directories in a way that complies with international standard compatibility and is expanded according to the realities and requirements of Vietnam.

c) Improving the system for collecting statistical data.

Building a registration system for basic information about enterprises, grassroots units, household registration, land; organizing timely updates of important and fundamental economic and social information to provide for management purposes, especially providing comprehensive information for organizing sample surveys on production and business activities of enterprises, household economies, agricultural production, etc.

Improving the enterprise statistical reporting system towards reducing regular reports, increasing information collection through appropriate surveys for each type of enterprise to ensure that the statistical report information accurately and comprehensively reflects the current status of enterprises, providing necessary information to calculate and determine economic sector performance indicators, meeting the requirement of consolidating enterprise information. Improving the reporting system applicable to grassroots units, implementing administrative record-keeping systems in sectors and fields such as customs, education, health, culture, public security, judiciary, finance, banking, taxation, business registration, etc., ensuring the common information requirements of the national statistical system and the management requirements of each ministry and sector; improving the reporting system applicable to ministries and sectors with administrative record-keeping systems to fully and promptly reflect the activities of ministries and sectors according to their management and operational responsibilities, while addressing the need to provide and ensure initial administrative record-keeping information between directly managing ministries and sectors and the General Statistics Office, serving the requirements of national statistical work.

Based on the information requirements of the Government, ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and government agencies, the General Statistics Office shall take the lead:

Conduct periodic national censuses every ten years on population and housing, and every five years on rural areas, agriculture, fisheries, economic establishments, administrative and public institutions.

Organize regular and annual surveys based on planning and reasonable arrangement of surveys across the country between the General Statistics Office and relevant ministries and sectors.

Enhance the use of existing data sources for statistical work such as accounting documents, tax system documents, customs system documents, business registration documents, investment permits, construction permits, etc., to improve the quality of statistical data and contribute to saving state resources.

4. Implementation measures:

a) Perfect the legal environment for statistics.

Timely promulgate and harmonize guiding documents for the Statistics Law; implement the dissemination and education of laws on statistics, regularly conduct inspection and audit activities on statistics to ensure that statistical laws are strictly enforced.

b) Apply information technology and communication to develop statistics.

Strengthen the infrastructure of information technology systems, moving towards computerizing statistical work within the statistics sector, ministries, sectors, and localities.

Based on standardizing statistical products, classification tables, directories, reporting forms, survey forms, etc., develop specialized software applications for each field of statistics to automate processing, calculation, and analysis stages.

Establish a national database system for socio-economic statistics including micro-level databases, macro-level databases, and databases on classification tables, directory tables, statistical indicators, and calculation methods.

The national database system is organized according to the principle of centralization at the General Statistics Office and at ministries and sectors. The database collected by a sector is built and managed by that sector.

Access to and exploitation of the national database for state management purposes must be ensured conveniently. The General Statistics Office is permitted to exploit initial databases managed by statistical organizations of ministries and sectors to serve management requirements assigned but must comply with confidentiality principles.

Complete and develop the statistical website to connect to the Internet. Build and strengthen the Central and regional Statistical Computing Centers under the General Statistics Office towards modernization.

c) Consolidate the organizational structure and training of statistical staff.

Consolidate centralized statistical organization, territorial-based according to vertical management model comprising: the General Statistics Office, Provincial/City Statistics Bureaus, District/Urban District Statistics Offices, and have a team of auxiliary staff conducting surveys and collecting data in key areas.

Improve the organizational structure of statistics in ministries and sectors towards ensuring each ministry and sector has a statistical organization capable of fulfilling tasks related to data collection, processing, synthesis, storage, and provision of information for the centralized statistical system and management requirements of ministries and sectors.

Improve the quality of training, upgrade secondary statistics schools under the General Statistics Office to college level. Establish a continuous education system, improve teaching content in economics universities, and retrain statistical staff to meet societal needs for statistical expertise.

d) Funding and technical facilities for statistical work.

The State ensures funding for regular statistical activities, periodic censuses, and conditions regarding material facilities, means, and information technology equipment so that the General Statistics Office can form a national database system serving Party and State leadership, meeting state management requirements of ministries, sectors, and localities.

The General Statistics Office may apply a statistical service mechanism, charge fees when providing statistical information and products to entities using them for production, business, and other profit-making activities.

đ) Enhance international cooperation in the field of statistics.

Proactively cooperate with United Nations organizations, international statistical organizations, and countries to quickly access advanced technologies, practices, international standards, exchange experiences, and seek technical and financial assistance. Promote exchanges in exploiting international statistical information to collect international statistical data serving domestic research and management needs, ensuring the supply of data for international statistical products.

Article 2. Implementation

1. On the basis of the objectives, basic contents, and development orientation of Vietnamese statistics, the General Statistics Office shall take the lead and coordinate with ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, provincial people's committees directly under the central government to organize and implement this Decision.

2. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, provincial people's committees directly under the central government shall, within their functions, tasks, and authorities, be responsible for coordinating with the General Statistics Office in implementing this Decision; ensuring consistency and synchronization to serve the implementation of socio-economic development plans of sectors and localities.

Article 3. This Decision takes effect fifteen days from the date of issuance.

Article 4. Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of government-affiliated agencies, Chairpersons of People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities are responsible for implementing this Decision./.